Stage Three
by shanejayell
Summary: A reboot of the Knight Sabers, where Sylia Stingray has just inherited her father's company... Genom!
1. Sylia Stingray

Disclaimer: I own none of the characters from Bubblegum Crisis, they all belong to AIC and ADV, I'm only borrowing them for awhile. This can also be considered a reboot, much like 2040 was a reboot of the first series.

Bubblegum Crisis: Stage Three

Part One

Sylia Stingray sat in the back of the black limo, her short black hair falling around her face as the young woman watched traffic race on by on the streets of Tokyo. Thoughtfully she counted all the cars that had been made by Genom owned companies but stopped after a minute and already reaching a hundred. Instead she turned her brown eyes to the paperwork on her padd, a ultra slim computer evolved from the primitive Blackberry.

Today was the day... after reaching legal adulthood Sylia was finally gaining ownership of her father's company, Genom International. Over forty years ago Dr. Katsuhito Stingray had created the company's greatest product, the artificial humanoid called Boomer, as well as guided it into becoming one of the most powerful companies in the globe. Why, Genom's Tokyo tower itself employed nearly half the sprawling metropolis, and it was only one of dozens of such facilities all around the world.

The limo pulled up to the base of the tower and onto the main access ramp, stopping in front of the gate. A male-type guard boomer scanned their paperwork and the gate opened, the security force field snapping back on once they drove through. The car followed the curving road past the lower industrial levels of the facility and stopped about half way up, where the administrative levels began.

"Here you go, Miss Stingray," the male boomer driver in the impeccable black suit said as he opened up her door.

"Thank you," Sylia said to it with reflexive politeness, standing in the cool shade provided by the tower as she watched the regional manager hurry out along with the soon to be retiring vice president. 'The gate guard must have been programmed to phone ahead when I arrived,' she thought, amused.

Brian J. Mason pushed back his black hair as he smiled at her charmingly, the taller man looking just a little nervous. "Miss Stingray, we weren't expecting you to arrive so soon," the manager said, "you just got back from overseas."

'From my years in a foreign boarding school,' Sylia smiled back calmly, but inside she felt a flash of annoyance. "I thought it would be good for company confidence if I showed due diligence," she answered calmly.

"Of course, of course," Quincy Rosencroitz said quickly, the old man standing straight with the assistance of metallic braces added to his legs. His voice was strong for a man in his eighties, too, not reedy like some might be as he said, "It's good to have you here, Sylia."

'Is this what my father's voice might sound like now?' Sylia wondered sadly, knowing he had been in his fifties when he fathered her, having died only six years after. "Thank you, sir," she answered him respectfully as she continued, "and thank you for all your efforts watching over the company for me."

Quincy smiled back a little sadly as he explained simply, "Why, it was the least I could do for your father."

Brian looked between the two of them then smiled nervously as he asked, "Maybe we should go inside?"

Sylia saw the tiredness that Quincy tried to hide and nodded politely as she answered, "Of course, let's go in."

Inside the main entrance hall the whole upper staff of the primary tower had been assembled, mostly made up of the heads of each division within Genom. Along with Mason there were reps for Boomers, Autos, Music and entertainment, computers and other products Genom created. Along with them was the head of Genom's security force the AD Police, Jeena Malso, who met her gaze with cool intensity.

Unlike most machines Boomers had a very low failure rate, only one in a hundred, and most of those failures were minor. But with the booming business in them the failures did crop up, and Occasionally proved dangerous. Serving their primary purpose the AD Police were called in, capturing or destroying the Boomer as needed.

"Commander Malso," Sylia shook her hand, "you do good work."

"Thank you," Jeena shook it, the older woman smiling tightly.

As expected for the arrival of a new president Sylia gave a short speech, a mix of 'thank you for all your hard work,' and 'let's do our best together' along with a bit of 'the future shines brightly on the company as a new era begins.' It was all cliche but Sylia knew the way the game was played and played it very well.

"Nicely done, Miss Stingray," Mason murmured as he lead her into the elevator and off on a tour of the facilities.

"I did some reading on this kind of thing," Sylia admitted as they stopped on the music and entertainment floor. Headed up by Reika Chang they handled everything from themes for Genom's commercials to managing a music label that Genom owned.

The secretary in front of Reika's office was a attractive brown haired woman with a athletic look about her, despite the sleek suit she wore. "Miss Stingray, Mr Mason," she smiled, her green suit hugging her form as she rose respectfully, "should I check if Ms Chang is available to see you?"

"No need, Miss Yamazaki," Mason nodded. Turning to Sylia he said, "Linna Yamazaki is one of our top executive assistants... in fact I've tried to steal her for myself many times but she's distressingly loyal."

Linna blushed as she pushed her short hair back, "You exaggerate, Mr Mason."

"Nice to meet you, Linna," Sylia nodded, almost unwillingly noting how attractive the slim woman really was. 'This is not the place or time,' Sylia reminded herself firmly, 'she works for you.'

The tour took most of the day and Sylia felt rather annoyed that she couldn't get right down to work. Still, it was only her first day, and there was plenty of time to begin on the changes she ultimately planned.

The next few days were spent learning the lay of the land, primarily studying the computer system. Of course before now Sylia had access to the Genom mainframes from home, but only as a standard user. With her ascending to the presidency she gained unfettered access to the global system and the ability to go anywhere.

"Isn't that interesting," Sylia muttered as her hands flew over the keyboard generated in the smooth surface of her desk. The office on the top floor of the tower was beautifully decorated and offered a terrific view of the city, but Sylia's attention was focused on the holographic screen. Again and again the messages popped up: insufficient access, fatal error and more.

'This doesn't make sense,' Sylia mused as she sat back, 'I have root access. There's no way I can't get into this memory block.'

Archives for Genom were saved every year, dating back to the year that Genom had been founded. But mysteriously the memory stored during the year Sulia's father had died was inaccessible... according to the computer, there was literally nothing there.

Going through the system directory Sylia checked with maintenance first, making sure the hard drives were all still intact. The data had been extracted in the past and transferred to modern storage, but those high density drives checked out fine. Once she confirmed that she moved on to step two, contacting the head of computer services and asking what the status of the box was.

Lisa Valante was a young woman, very nearly as young as Sylia, but that wasn't an impediment in the world of computers. Young people were nearly raised with data access, and the more talented kids were quickly recognized and shunted into the correct programs. Lisa was sharper than most prodigies, having skipped over much of high school and university to pursue a self constructed program of computer research.

The dusky skinned blonde smiled wryly as Lisa addressed Sylia, "There's nothing wrong with that unit."

"Easy for you to say," Sylia answered dryly, "so why can't I get into that unit?"

"It was sealed by a authority higher than yours, I'd guess," Lisa answered.

Sylia frowned as she sat up, "But there is no authority higher than mine in Genom!"

"There is one, in theory," Lisa answered, meeting Sylia's irritated gaze coolly, "your father. If he ordered it sealed before he died..."

Sylia visibly made herself relax, sitting back in her chair. "Is there any way to confirm that?" she asked as she watched the image on the screen.

Lisa gave Sylia a apologetic look as she answered, "I'll do what I can, but you might need a better hacker than I am."

"Do you have anyone on staff?" Sylia asked while also considering her various school mates and friends.

"Actually, there's someone I know...," Lisa conceded.

Nene Romanova was not whom Sylia had been expecting. She was small, redheaded, and oddly irreverent as she looked around Sylia's office, always wearing her white gloves. She was a loaner from the AD Police, a officer in their cyber-crime department. Part of her job involved reconstructing data hacks, developing quite a talent herself.

"You understand I require confidentiality on this?" Sylia stressed. "While it's not forbidden for the president of Genom to pursue this sort of puzzle, a adversary could use it to imply I'm unstable or unsuitable to lead."

"Of course," Nene sniffed. She hesitated as she began to pull off her gloves, "Besides, I can understand keeping secrets."

Sylia didn't gasp because she was used to seeing prosthetics on her classmates, especially the self-styled cyberpunks, but she felt a twinge of surprise at the clearly visible artificial hands. "Those are Boomer tech," she noted, "why not get the skin color changed to match yours?"

Nene set herself up using a portable terminal as she answered, "I had some grey-market interface tech installed. Using a added layer of false skin might interfere with the system access filaments." With that she sat by her terminal, tiny almost invisible strings of material extending from her fingertips to plug directly to the terminal, data streaming by on the holographic screen without her pressing a single key.

"I'm impressed," Sylia murmured as she tried to track Nene's process on her own computer, "maybe I should get that done."

"I wouldn't," Nene said, eyes closed as she concentrated, "you can get fired for having this kind of enhancement." She frowned, "I started out in the regular Police before they fired me over my hands."

"Their loss was our gain," Sylia noted.

"Heh," Nene said as the data streaming by slowed slightly. "Here we go... whoever put this lock in was a paranoid, it's asking me for multiple word and number codes. I'm processing now... oh damn!"

Sylia sat up, "What!"

"I triggered a flag of some kind," Nene scowled, "I don't know what..."

With a loud crash they heard something break out in the hallway, then continue towards the suite. Sylia got up from behind her desk as she ordered, "Disengage, now."

Strands of material smoothly retracted into her hands as Nene asked, "Do you think the flag I tripped...?"

"Probably," Sylia answered as something tore into the door.

To be continued...


	2. Linna Yamazaki

Bubblegum Crisis

Stage Three

Part Two

Linna Yamazaki paused by the elevator, feeling a odd degree of nervousness as she waited for it to arrive. All she had to do tonight was drop off some files with Mr. Mason on the top floor, then she could go home. 'Why we can't just send data files I don't know,' Linna thought as the brown haired woman shifted uncomfortably in her suit, 'some old fashioned type at the top must want to keep paper around.'

Of course, Linna had to admit there were some advantages to carrying printed data. It couldn't be intercepted electronically, for instance, nor altered in a similar fashion. Of course if you were sending data on paper you had better trust your courier, but Linna knew that Ms Chang trusted her.

The elevator arrived with a soft sound and Linna stepped inside as a female model Boomer looked at her curiously. "Top floor, please," she addressed the elevator and the doors silently shut. With barely a shift the elevator rose, the female boomer looking forward with the oddest expression.

As soon as the elevator stopped the boomer was off, it's simple one piece uniform hugging it'd body as it strode down the hall to the executive office. Linna hesitated as she watched it go, then walked the other direction to Mason's office. Dropping off the files she hurried out only to hear the sound of metal straining dangerously.

"What on earth...?" Linna found herself hurrying over, concerned there might still be people in the executive wing. Coming around a corner Linna blinked in shock as she saw the boomer tearing at a door with it's bare hands, deforming the metal itself.

With a final wrench it tore the door off, but before it could act a weapon fired nearly soundlessly and sent it crashing into a wall. Before it could recover two women rushed out, the smaller redheaded one carrying a ADP issue personal handgun, probably a railgun type by the nearly complete soundlessness.

Beside her was Linna's boss Sylia Stingray, looking surprisingly unruffled by the situation. "Do you think that will stop it?" she asked in a surprisingly calm way.

"It'll barely slow it down" Nene responded as they hurried towards Linna, "we've got to get ADP backup."

"Miss Stingray, are you...?" LInna started to ask only to be grabbed by the arm as the other two ran by.

"Running now, talking later," Sylia said tersely as they ran for the elevator.

"Right," Linna agreed as the homicidal boomer leaved itself up from where the railgun projectiles had temporarily nailed it to the wall. It hurried after them,.thankfully slowed a bit by the damage to it's leg and side. "Have you phoned for help?" she asked quickly.

"Something's interfering with the phones," Nene said grimly.

"How would you stop one of these things normally?" Sylia quizzed Nene as they rushed to the elevator.

"Massive damage, usually," Nene admitted, "boomers are built tough, and have so much redundancy that only heavy damage can stop them."

Sylia scowled, looking at the elevator warily. "Too bad we don't have the means to do that here," she said grimly.

Linna looked around them too, her thoughts racing as she considered what they said. "Maybe," she said quietly, "there is a way."

"Eh?" both Sylia and Nene looked at her in surprise as she laid out her idea.

Nene frowned, "It's dangerous..."

"So's that thing," Linna noted.

"Let's do it," Sylia moved away from the two women, "Whoo! Over here!"

The Boomer looked confused a moment, then lurched after Sylia. Both Linna and Nene hurried down the other way, Linna leading the way. From previous visits she knew the top of the tower had a circular outer hall lined with windows showing a incredible view. They hurried along till they could hear Sylia coming, then made their preparations.

"Okay, low power," Nene adjusted her gun then aimed at a glass panel, firing several carefully to weaken the moorings that held the armored glass in place.

"Here it comes!" Sylia yelped as she ran by.

Linna waited until the boomer shambled after the president before grabbing it by the arm. Using a move she had practiced many times in her self defense classes she shifted her weight and used the boomer's momentum against it. It slammed hard up against the glass, bending it outward. For a moment it held then with a pop the glass released, sending the boomer falling down the side of the tower to hit with a thud.

"Do you think that stopped it?" Linna gasped as she leaned against the wall, adrenalin making her legs feel weak.

"If not, it's probably too damaged to go after us again," Sylia said firmly, drawing out her portable phone once more.

Linna felt a surge of relief as Sylia quickly reached someone else in the building, informing internal security of the attempted attack. In only a few minutes a mini-copter was outside filming the wreckage of the boomer as ADP staff interviewed everyone involved.

Jeena Malso wouldn't normally have involved herself in a regular investigation, but an assault on the president of Genom drew the brown haired woman out. Listening to the story the older woman shook her head ruefully, "That may be the most innovative way I've heard of stopping a boomer with light weapons, Officer Romanova. Good work."

Linna looked up as she gave the story to another officer, "It occurred to me from something Nene said... that and remembering my self defense courses."

"Good work," Sylia nodded from where she had just finished giving her account, "I'll have to see if I can authorize a bonus this month."

"You don't have to...," Linna protested, blushing. 'I was just saving myself, too,' she thought to herself wryly.

"Thanks, Linna," Nene looked over at her with a ghost of a smile.

"Miss Stingray," Jeena said quietly a few moments later as she stood by the other woman's side, "I'm so sorry. This shouldn't have happened."

"Nothing you could have done," Sylia said as the ADV officers finished up collecting the evidence, a repair crew ready to fix the window

"That doesn't mean it still isn't my responsibility," Jenna answered. She frowned, "Is there anything you can think of that might have been a trigger?"

"No, nothing," Sylia answered promptly.

'Why do I get the feeling she's lying?' Linna thought, confused. Shaking herself she turned to the man interviewing her, "Officer Wong, can I go?"

"Yes ma'am," Daley Wong smiled warmly, "you've been a great help to us."

"Don't worry about him being too charming," Nene winked at Linna cheerfully as she explained, "Daley's gay."

"You know," Leon McNicol rolled his eyes as the burly cop put his own notebook style padd away, "you really don't have to tell everyone that, Nene."

"I find it prevents misunderstandings," Nene laughed softly.

Excusing herself Linna made her way to the lifts, finally relaxing as she descended to the underground parking lot. Miss Stingray was a nice, seemingly down to earth person, yet she also hummed with a dangerous energy. It was so strong Linna had felt herself tensing up too, bracing for whatever might happen next.

Stopping by her compact car Linna took her phone out, dialing the number from memory. "It's me," she said as it was answered. She winced at the burst of sound, "I'm sorry, I got delayed. I'll explain when I get home."

With a sigh Linna got into her car, starting up the engine before driving out of the lot. As she neared the boomer manning the gate she felt a unreasoning burst of fear even though she knew he was harmless. He nodded as she showed her pass and raised the gate, his face as blandly polite as ever.

'I guess once one turns on you,' Linna thought as she moved her car into the light evening traffic, 'you never look at the rest the same way again.'

Tokyo, like New York, was truly a city that did not sleep. As day shifters went home to bed the night side lit up, a whole other breed of people emerging into the artificial light. Like the day shift they worked hard but in different jobs set to a different pace, one that Linna herself was quite familiar with. Once, but not any more.

The high rise apartment building was twenty minutes from the Tower, a steal even if the rent was steep. Still, the convenience was worth it, as well as the convenience of the other necessities of life. The security was also top shelf, with the standard monitors as well as boome security staff checking registries and vehicles at the gates.

"Good evening, Miss Yamazaki," the female boomer nodded a greeting as it checked her pass, "welcome home."

"Thank you," Linna smiled as she drove into the garage.

The elevator ride took forever, but Linna reached her level and hurried down the hall to her suite. The door was open and as she opened it she called, "I'm home."

"I was worried," Reika Chang said as she hurried over, the slightly older woman swiftly hugging her. "What happened?" she asked, drawing back to look at her in concern.

"One of the Tower boomers went rogue," Linna said, "but everything turned out okay."

Reika pushed Linna's hair away from her face with a tender gesture, "Why do I get the feeling you're downplaying things, love?" She bent forward, kissing her gently, "I thought of calling you earlier but..."

"It's all right," Linna said, smiling up at her gently. Reika was her superior, and their affair was clearly against regulations. If it got out Reika at least would be ruined, and probably Linna's career would be too.

To be continued...


	3. Priss Asagiri

Bubblegum Crisis 3.0

Part Three

The dive bar was under the shadow of Genom's tower, even though it was half way across the city. It was a old building, run down, and the people who came here barely expected a singer to be in tune, much less be good. So tonight, they were pleasantly surprised.

The lead singer's long black hair shimmered as she sang harshly, her voice blasting through the bar. She sang of blood in the streets, a war with the powers that be and courage that was undefeated by a terrible defeat. In her black leather top and jeans she was a feral, sexy presence on stage, catching the eye of everyone there.

'Damn it,' Priss mentally snarled to herself as she belted out the next verse, 'damn that Reika Chang!' Her mind flashed back to a few hours earlier, to a office high up in the damned Genom tower...

"I'm sorry Priss," Reika had said smoothly as she smiled, "but you agreed to preform for Genom as well as accept our recommendations."

Priss slammed her hand on the desk, "But the music is pure fluff!"

Reika met her eyes calmly, "Our market research shows that a pop idol approach would be best for your career."

Priss paced in front of the desk, fighting to control her temper, "You know I've worked years to build my rep as a metal-revivalist. This will ruin it!"

"Metal-revivalist is a fringe music," Reika shook her head firmly, "it'll be years before it's big... if ever." She tapped the promo art of Priss in a dress, her hair styled and lights shining on her, "This will sell now."

"I won't do it," Priss snarled.

Reika sat back, looking at Priss calmly, "Are you telling me you'll break your contract with Genom?"

"I...," Priss hesitated, hearing the ominous tone in her voice.

"You're welcome to do so," Reika continued mildly, "but Genom will expect to be repaid for the costs of promoting you and the proposed ad campaign."

Priss flushed, "I don't have that kind of money."

"True," Reika agreed, "and I suspect other companies would be... wary of hiring a potential risk like you."

"You'd blacklist me?" Priss said quietly.

"Blacklist is such a... harsh word," Reika said mildly.

Priss clenched her jaw as the idea of lawsuits for breech on contract and massive debts scurried across her mind. "You'll have your damned songs," she said bitterly as she walked to the door of the executive's office, "but don't expect me to help promote them!"

Back on the stage Priss drove her fury into her voice, blasting rage out as she sang the last verse. The crowd roared happily as the teens and adults cheered for the band widely known around the fringe scene in Tokyo.

"That was the band Revenge Road!" the host declared as he gave the crowd a smile, "Give 'em a big hand!" The crowd roared it's approval as he continued, "Maybe they'll do a second set, too."

"Only if you pay us," Priss answered, making sure the mic. could pick it up.

"You wound me, Ririka," the host sighed, running a hand through his greasy black hair even as the audience chuckled.

Gathering their gear the band headed to what was laughingly called the dressing room, really just a converted bathroom. Keeping her stage gear on Priss toweled the sweat away, sighing as the leather clinged to her slim body.

Gonzo the drummer looked up at her as he packed up his gear, "Priss, thank you. If you weren't playing with us..."

"It's nothing," Priss answered as she packed up her guitar.

"No, it's something," Maico the bass guitarist answered firmly. The redheaded woman looked at Priss with a frown, "If Genom finds out you're playing with us..."

"Which is why I have a wig on and the fake name," Priss answered grimly. She grabbed a jacket, "Gonzo, can you grab my pay from that bastard? I don't want his oily paws on me again."

"Sure," Gonzo nodded as his messy brown hair fell into his eyes, "you want me to kick him in the nuts for bothering you, too?"

"Tempting," Priss flashed a grin, "but no. Just the money will be fine."

A few minutes later and Priss collected her money, heading out into a back alley to shed her wig as she pulled on her jacket and helmet. She looked up at the tower and sighed before climbing on her motorbike and roaring off into the night.

There was a peacefulness to the city at night, even as the night shift hurried from place to place. Compared to the daytime rush it was nearly sedate, and it gave Priss the chance to open up the throttle a bit on her bike. She roared down roads and swept through turns, feeling the wind blow her worries away.

Whee-oo Whee-oo!

'Oh crap,' Priss slowed as she saw the red and blue lights in her mirrors. She hoped he or she might just zoom by but no luck, the electric powered cruiser settled into place right behind her as Priss slowed to a stop.

It took a moment or two then a younger, brown and blonde haired man emerged, dressed in the usual police uniform of a highway patrolman. With a casual walk the muscular fellow sauntered up to the bike, looking down at her with a quizical expression. "Do you want to guess how fast you were going?" he asked.

Priss was tempted to be a smart-ass, but she kept it under control. "I guess I was a little over the speed limit Officer...," she read his name tag, "McNichol."

"Nearly thirty kilometers a hour over," McNichol noted, "and according to the police mainframe you've been warned before."

'Oh that's just great,' Priss winced. "I'm really sorry," she said desperately to avoid a ticket and hefty fine.

McNichol paused as he looked a her, "Could you tilt your head towards the light?"

"Yes?" Feeling a bit of a idiot Priss did, figuring it might save her a ticket. 'But if he gets fresh,' she thought, 'he dies.'

"You're that Priss!" McNichol blurted, looking at her in shock.

Priss looked at him as if he had lost him mind, "What?"

"The singer!" McNichol said eagerly, "I used to follow all your appearances..." he deflated a bit, 'at least, until you signed a deal with Genom."

"Yeah, well...," Priss blushed as she looked away. She looked at him cautiously, "You want a autograph or somethin'?"

"Could I!?" MCNichol said as he stuffed his police notepad away and dug out a smaller book. "Could you sign it, "To my big fan Leon?" he asked.

"Leon, huh?" Priss murmured as she wrote in her usual sloppy handwriting. "Here ya go," she said as she passed the book back.

"Thank you," Leon smiled shyly as he quickly stuffed the book away.

Seizing her chance Priss smiled charmingly, "You mind if I take off? I have this really important interview tomorrow."

"Sure, go ahead," Leon said good-naturedly.

Not wasting any time Priss got her helmet on and was off, her headlight blazing in the night 'Thank goodness,' she thought, still keeping below the speed limit.

Leon put his hand on his ticket book as he was walking back to his squad car then froze. "Damn," he cursed softly, realizing he hadn't ticketed her or got her phone number!

Priss swung her way around the urban core of the city, making her way to the suburbs and the house she rented some space from. The nice young lady let Priss park her old trailer there and Priss paid a small rent and did various handyman jobs.

"Hey, Priss!" Miss Aoi waved from the porch, smiling as the blue haired woman asked, "Sho was wondering if you had dinner yet?"

'What's he doing up this hour?' Priss wondered. "Not yet," she answered as she parked her bike and set the helmet on top, "I just grabbed a burger where I worked."

"We still have some stir fry and rice if you're hungry," Aoi winked.

"Let me change first," Priss laughed, already feeling grungy in her leathers. A quick shower and change and Priss arrived in jeans and t-shirt, feeling much more comfortable than before.

"Hey Priss!" Sho smiled as she came in, his brown hair falling into his eyes messily.

"Hey," Priss nodded as she ruffled his hair, "you're getting shaggy."

Sho laughed as Aoi dished up the food, smiling warmly at Priss. "You look too thin you know," she commented, "how are you going to succeed as skin and bones?"

"Trust me, they prefer what I got," Priss shook her head wryly.

Aoi chuckled as she went by, patting Priss' ass, "I prefer it too." Quietly so Sho couldn't hear she asked, "Do you think you could stay over tonight?"

Priss blushed a bit, "I think so."

To be continued...


	4. Nene Romanova

Bubblegum Crisis: Stage Three

Part Four

Nene Romanova's red hair nearly matched the color of her cheeks as she growled, "What do you mean, access denied?"

AD Police headquarters was a large building, a shining tower in a city of similar shining towers. Set up in part to be Genom's private army and security force all expenses had been paid in equipping the unit. Their computer technology, weapons and vehicles were all top rate, sadly unlike most of their staff. Despite offering generous salaries most regular police officers were leery of joining Genom's private police, leaving them recruiting from officers unable to stay in the regular police for whatever reason.

Nene Romanova was one of those exiles, cast off from the regular police. The brass had been so appreciative of her computer expertise at first, assigning her to computer crimes and watching the convictions roll in. But as she began to experiment with cybernetic augmentation their glee turned to disapproval, until she was finally expelled.

"Damn it," Nene growled as her hands shimmered.

A series of micro-thin connection threads were running from Nene's boomer-like hands to the computer, data being received with almost no lag by her nervous system. She chased information in a virtual maze construct, a visual representation of computer pathways and memory, and normally she'd have caught it by now. However, her exploration of Genom's computers were anything but normal.

Sylia Stingray monitored the search from her home, wearing a modified virtual reality rig to observe the conflict. "Nene," the black haired woman asked her calmly, "are you sure this is safe to do?"

"No," Nene answered her, "But at least here there's a minimum of boomers here to send to try and attack me." Her virtual self shimmered as number generating programs spun out differing series to try to crack the encryption programs that were sealing away the information she was after in there

Sylia heard her yelp in pain and leaned forward as she commanded, "Nene, disengage!"

"Yes, ma'am," Nene agreed as she pulled back her connectors, feeling a mild throb of pain in her fingertips.

"What happened?" Sylia asked as she disengaged the monitor rig and activated a regular communication video screen in her office on the peak of Genom's Tower..

"Whoever designed the security there was really cutting edge," Nene conceded as she rubbed her still tingling hands, "they rigged up a neural feedback in addition to viral bombs as part of your defenses."

Sylia grimaced slightly, "Internal Security is Mason's department, along with Jeena Malso. I suspect they're the ones who designed the system."

"I doubt Jeena was much involved," Nene noted as she pulled her white uniform gloves on, "she's a former beat cop and captain, not a cyber wizard."

"Mason, then," Sylia said. "So," she continued, "I assume you can't break in remotely?"

"No, I probably can," Nene answered seriously, "but it's going to take a lot of computing power... much more than even ADP's computers."

Nene watched as Sylia sat back, wondering what the other woman was thinking of. Personally Nene was in this for the challenge of solving a unique puzzle, with the added bonus of having the head of Genom owe her a favor. Sylia seemed to be also bit by the puzzle bug, but from what Nene had gotten from Lisa Valente there was a personal connection as well.

"I'm going to see what I can do about getting you that computer power," Sylia said after a moment, "would you be willing to try again?"

"Is this going to be official or off of ADP's radar?" Nene asked after a moment's thought.

"I'd like to keep this under wraps," Sylia said, "for the reasons we discussed before. Is that a problem?"

"No," Nene said cheerfully, "I'll just need to work around my job." She smiled slightly, "I'm in, if you want me after failing twice."

"I still need you," Sylia confirmed, "and I'll contact you in a few days."

"Thanks," Nene nodded as Sylia excused herself and cut the connection.

Once Sylia was gone Nene let herself relax, running a shaking hand through her sweaty red hair. She wouldn't say that Sylia scared her, exactly, but she certainly felt a certain awe in the dynamic woman's presence. It was surprising that a woman younger than her could inspire such feelings, though when Nene hacked into her records she got a sense of Sylia's capabilities. The woman was near the genius mark, if not over, and Nene got the sense Sylia might have been deliberately holding back on the tests.

Sighing reluctantly Nene went back to her work, focusing on her terminal and the mundane job of dealing with malicious hacks of boomer servers. It was sad that some poorly adjusted people felt the need to attack Genom in such stupid ways, but it fell to officers like her to track the intrusions, backtrack them to people then assist regular police in arrests.

"Hey, Nene," her superior called, "your pal Wong is here. The Akajima file!"

"Right," Nene called as she grabbed her jacket and hurried out of the cubicle to meet the two cops waiting in the lobby.

Daley Wong and Leon McNichol were beat cops, both men she had worked with before on cases. Regular police often had to be called out on AD police cases, and they quickly spotted ones who could work with them without friction. Daley and Leon were good guys, for the most part, with their only problem being Leon's tendency to shoot off his mouth.

"Hey, Nene," Leon smiled as she hurried up to them, the woman not even coming up to the tall man's shoulder.

"Hiya Leon-poo," Nene said in her teasing, sing song voice.

As Daley chuckled Leon blushed redly, "Do you have to call me that?"

"Yup," Nene winked.

"I shouldn't have asked," Leon sighed.

"Did you get the warrant we needed?" Nene asked as she lead them to one of the high tech cruisers exclusively owned by the ADP.

"Signed, sealed and delivered," Daley said as Leon looked enviously at the car before reluctantly climbing in the passenger side.

Nene took the driver's seat as Daley climbed in back. "Buckled up?" Nene asked before starting the engine and taking them out of the garage and onto street level.

Tokyo was a busy city any time of day, people racing back and forth like ants in a ant farm. A ADP cruiser cut through traffic like a knife as they drove, the low to the ground vehicle nearly silent as it's electric engine purred.

"Man," Leon murmured as they drove through the business core then out towards the docks, "I can't wait until the regular police trade in our hybrids for these."

"Patience," Nene half smiled as she double checked the address on the onboard computer.

Daley smiled slightly as they passed into the slums filled with dock workers, "Or you could always join the ADP."

"No way," Leon blurted then looked at Nene sheepishly, "no offense."

"None taken," Nene answered as they stopped by a older set of apartments. She looked over the terrain, then murmured, "The suite we want is upstairs and around the corner."

Daley made sure the strap holding his gun in place was unsnapped, "Parking out of his line of sight?"

"Trying to," Nene answered honestly.

"Let's move," Leon headed to the side door and used a police universal pass-key to get them inside. He checked out the stairway, "Looks clear."

"I'll take the rear," Daley said briskly, "you lead."

"Got it," Leon said as they hurried up the stairs.

"Don't I get a say in this?" Nene puffed as she was swiftly hustled between the two men up three floors.

"No," Daley winked, "consider it a old fashioned male right."

They reached the third floor and slid out of the stairwell, quietly hurrying towards the suite. It took less than a minute to get in position, Daley planted in front of the steel door with warrant in hand while Nene and Leon flanked him on either side.

Pressing the call button beside the door Daley firmly said, "This is the police, we're here for David Suzumiya! Come out with your hands up, we are authorized to use deadly force!"

"Nice," Nene murmured as the silence dragged on.

"I'm up," Leon shuffled over and used the pass-key or open the door.

Daley kicked the door open with his boot as he yelled, "This is the police! Come out with your hands up!"

"Master!" the naked robot bounced her way around the corner.

"Eh?" Nene blinked.

"Leon?" Daley surrendered to a authority on the opposite sex.

"Wait, wha...." Leon started as Daley pushing him in front only to be knocked over by the cushiony blonde bombshell.

David Suzumiya emerged from a bedroom as the slim, somewhat ragged looking man sheepishly asked, "Uh, am I in trouble?"

"Depends on if our friend runs out of air under your playmate," Nene noted dryly.

To be continued....


	5. Interlude

Bubblegum Crisis: Stage Three

Interlude

Brian J. Mason looked out the window of Genom's tower, feeling a deep surge of satisfaction at how far he had gone. The black haired man had his hands in his pockets as he soaked up the silence of the building, glad that most of the staff were gone for the day. His corner office was spacious and well appointed, a massive desk facing the door, leather chair, mini-bar and a cutting edge computer set up.

A soft chime pulled him away from the view and Mason frowned, walking over to the desk. "Situation?" he asked as he took his suit coat off, tossing it aside and sitting down as the holographic interface activated.

The male voice of the computer answered as a image appeared of the Genom mainframe's virtual interior, "Unauthorized access detected."

Mason smiled as he saw the intruder's icon become entangled with the second stage defenses, "Location and identity?"

"Unknown," the computer responded, "the intruder is bouncing a signal off several satellites as well as routing through several commercial servers."

"A pro, then," Mason frowned. As they spoke the icon slipped through the second line, moving tentatively forward. "Assessment?" he asked.

"Cybernetically augmented hacker," the computer concluded, "response is too fast for a human operative but not fast enough to be pure artificial intelligence."

Mason nodded his agreement, "Makes sense. Deploy the neural feedback mines, please."

"Activated," the computer answered and in moments the intruder disengaged, flitting away from the system and probably hurting.

"Nicely done," Mason smiled. "Any chance of chasing them?"

The computer actually sounded a bit frustrated as it replied, "I tracked it from here to China, then a Canadian routing and over to Singapore, but I lost them there."

"They were hitching on a number or corporate data streams," Mason noted admiringly, "they're very good." He drummed his fingers on the desk top a moment, "Increase system security to level two."

"Lethal force authorized?" the computer asked.

"No," Mason said after considering the issue a moment, "but you're welcome to scare them as much as you want."

"Acknowledged," it answered, sounding a bit disappointed.

Mason logged on to the building directory, checking to see if Jeena Malso was still in. According to the directory she was in her office, though Mason had to concede that wasn't too useful if Jeena had just forgotten to log off.

"Jeena Malso's office," Mason ordered as he touched the phone patch on the surface of his desk.

"Yeah?" Malso asked irritably as her face appeared on a holographic screen above the desk. Her black hair had a bit of grey showing through, her face lined from a interesting life and choice of work. Unlike most staff she didn't have a boomer answering her phones, apparently preferring a human secretary or herself.

"We had a attempted security breach," Mason reported.

Jeena's eyes narrowed, "On the computers, I think, since I'd have gotten a report from our guards otherwise."

"Yes," Mason nodded seriously, "a hacker got by the outer firewall and slipped through two tiers of security."

She sat up in surprise as Jeena said, "That's bad." While in no way a system expert she knew enough to understand both how hard it was to penetrate their system. "Any idea who did it?" she asked hopefully.

"They covered their tracks too well," Mason admitted, "though if they try again I'm hopeful we'll get more."

Jeena nodded, her expression thoughtful as she turned over the facts she had in her head. "Do you think it's related to Miss Stingray arriving?" she asked.

Mason frowned, "It's only been a week since she arrived...."

"The timing is interesting," Jeena mused. "Should we increase security on her?"

"Not without asking," Mason said after a moment, "she is the boss, after all."

Jeena chuckled softly, "Yeah, well we'll see."

"Anyway," Mason smiled slightly as he sat back, "I'm just trying to keep you in the loop as head of security."

"I appreciate it," Jeena agreed as she logged off.

Jeena Malso's office was cluttered and untidy, much like it's mistress. There were takeout cartons on the desk, files scattered about and at least one change of clothes discarded in the corner. Despite all that Jeena easily navigated the mess, finding the documents she needed before grabbing her jacket to go.

"Let's see," Jeena muttered to herself as her office locked automatically behind her. She flipped through Sylia Stingray's file, committing the data to memory. Sylia was a genius, rated in the top ten percent of the population, and had graduated valedictorian from her overseas university. Bo criminal record, no school comments, tho Jeena took that with a grain of salt. If Jeena had learned anything over the years, it was money could buy a lot of silence.

"Miss Malso," a female boomer nodded a greeting as she strode into the elevator. Her long silver hair glinted in the artificial light, her simple body suit hugging her slim body.

"Sub-basement parking," Jeena ordered absent mindedly as she read.

"Of course," the boomer smiled warmly.

'Wonder if I should check into my contacts out there?' Jeena mused as she flipped through a university transcript. While Jeena didn't know if any of her classmates had been hired out there, she did think she remembered a contact from a police conference. 'Maybe they'd spill sone dirt?' she thought.

Cheerfully the boomer reported, "Sub-basement."

"Thanks," Jeena nodded as she headed out into the dimmer light, passing by a limo as she headed for her car. 'Quincy is working late again,' she noted.

"Welcome, Miss Malso," her car said as it recognized her, the driver's side door swinging open invitingly.

Tossing the file on the seat Jeena slid in with a sigh. "Take me home," she ordered, "shortest route."

"Programming route," the car intoned as the doors closed, "route one activated."

'Thank god I installed that artificial intelligence upgrade,' Jeena admitted as she went over the documents again, the car starting up then driving out onto the quiet evening streets.

From his place up in the tower Quincy R Rosencroitz watched the car disappear into the night, the old man standing straight with the assistance of metallic braces added to his legs. The eighty some years old man frowned as he reluctantly turned away, striding over to his desk. Reaching up he pushed his white hair out of the way, revealing what looked like plug ins set into the back of his head.

"Activating interface," the computer said flatly as cables dropped down from the ceiling.

There was a wet sound as Quincy plugged himself in, easing himself down as he sat back at his desk and closed his eyes. His eyes jerked about as information poured right into his brain, processing the data faster than any normal human could. He finally relaxed as the data slowed, his eyes opening and looking rather vague.

"I'll never get used to that," Quincy sighed.

"I'm sorry," the shadowy figure said from the hologram on Quincy's desk. Quincy still didn't know who he was, but this individual had provided him with important data several times. To be blunt Quincy owed him, and had not yet payed back the debt.

"Not your fault," Quincy mused as he thought about what he had learned. "The hacker...." he frowned, "what was the target?"

"I don't know," the shadow sounded frustrated, "security stopped them before I could see what they were after."

"Not good," Quincy scowled. "I could order Jeena and Mason to let them in a bit farther...." he suggested.

"No, both Jeena and Mason would see it as an unusual request," the shadowy man shook his head, "Best just to keep your eyes open."

"I understand," Quincy nodded. "Should I call you using the number you left me earlier?"

"Yes, leave a message and I'll get back to you," the shadowy figure promised as he added, "good luck."

"You too," Quincy agreed as his mysterious contact disappeared.

To be continued...


	6. Meeting

Bubblegum Crisis

Stage Three

Part Six

"This is not good," Sylia Stingray muttered as she sat back from her home computer, "not good at all."

The black haired woman set out tonight to do some digging into her father's company, Genom, as well as to look into events surrounding the company. The longer she worked in there the more Sylia had smelled a rat, or possibly a whole colony of rats using Genom as shelter and a base of operations. But the deeper she had dug, the more strange and difficult questions had come up.

Over the past few years, Boomer related incidents causing death and destruction were on the rise, so why was nothing being done? Several of these had been in public, but somehow all negative reporting had stopped. The AD Police were accused of silencing any objections, but no investigations were launched. Even stranger several reporters had attempted to pry the lid off of Genom but stopped, either backing off, disappearing or dying in 'accidents.' And these accidents, more often than not, seemed to involve Boomers.

"Is someone at Genom doing this intentionally?" Sylia wondered aloud, sitting back in her chair as she frowned at the screen. "If so, who?" she muttered, thoughts racing.

The problem was, Sylia didn't have enough information. She didn't know why Boomers were going rogue, she didn't know who had the authority to mobilize Boomers to attack people, nor did she know what their motives were. It could be someone covering up a personal error, it could be some executive hiding a secret of some sort and it could even be some fool thinking he was protecting the company.

Scowling Sylia murmured, "And I can't just go into work and kick over the apple cart, either."

The boomer attack on her in her office just last week had shown Sylia exactly how vulnerable she was. Even in her own building surrounded by state of the art security, a Boomer had been able to attack and try to kill her. An attack that internal security could still not explain to her satisfaction. Apparently the Boomer had just suddenly gone rogue, broke into the office and tried to kill her in defiance of all safety programing. It was a mostly superficial investigation, but one that Sylia couldn't easily object too.

'I need personal security,' Sylia admitted to herself glumly, 'people I can trust with my life, if I need be. But where do I find that kind of person?'

Impulsively Sylia opened up her computer files, scanning data as she entered search parameters. There was already someone Sylia had trusted with her life, Nene Romanova, and perusing her files confirmed her original opinion of the girl's trustworthyness. In fact, she was almost too honest according to her confidential file that Sylia hacked into, having refused to slant the truth to suit her superiors.

Digging into files Sylia searched, stretching long unused hacking muscles. Being careful not to trip hidden flags she expertly rose through the less secured personel files in Genom, finding the sort of person she wanted then following up on her hunches through external search engines. Within a minute she had a longer list, then began to dig as she attempted to narrow it down further.

"Miss Sylia," the specially made Boomer maid said respectfully, the tall redhead standing in the doorway. "You've been up for nearly twenty-four hours," she chided gently, "it's not healthy to go so long without sleep."

Sylia stretched tiredly, closing her files and locking them in her home's secure data archive. "Thanks, Erica," she conceded as she got up, "it's been a hectic week."

"Shall I draw you a bath before bed?" Erica asked warmly.

"No thank you," Sylia sighed, feeling a moment of discomfort as she realized even her own, personal Boomer could be turned on her. She patted Erica on the shoulder as she added, "Do me a favor and run your self-diagnostic mode for me tonight."

"Of course, madam," Erica nodded as she watched Sylia walk away.

The next morning Sylia began to put her strategy in motion, making a series of phone calls through scrambled systems, carefully maintaining her anonymity. She felt a pang of guilt over some of her methods but firmly squashed it, knowing she would make it up to her candidates.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

Priss Asagiri felt her blood run cold as she opened up the message on her phone. A photo of her in disguise preforming in Hot Legs. The text attached read, "This would be a clear violation of your Genom contract, if they found out. Come to assembly factory six at 06:00 and no one will need to know."

"Shit!" the brown haired woman cursed as she stuffed her phone back into her pocket.

Priss steadied her sleek bike as she started the engine, her thoughts racing. Whoever had sent the mail could destroy her career, or worse bankrupt her by providing the photo to Genom. She had no choice, she had to go to this meeting and find out what they wanted from her.

'But if it's too much,' Priss thought bleakly as she touched the pistol she usually wore at the base of her back, 'I'll do what I have to.'

Meanwhile, in another part of the city Linna Yamazaki made a soft, broken sound as the brown haired woman dropped the plate she had been carrying, the glass breaking with a crash.

"Linna!" Reika Chang yelped as she hurried over to her lover, the older woman worriedly asking, "What's wrong?"

"I...," Linna said weakly, then turned her mobile phone towards Reika.

Reika visibly paled as she saw a image of herself and Linna wrapped around each other. It looked like it was taken at a hotel, and with a sinking feeling she recognized the place as where they had attended a music conference together. "How did...," Reika blinked.

"There's a message too," Linna said, her eyes wide.

Reika scrolled up and read, "Naughty naughty. Doing this on company time? I wonder what Mason or Stingray would say. If you don't want them to find out, meet me at assembly factory six at 06:00."

Linna took a minute to gather her wits, "I'll go. Maybe I can convince them to...."

"I'm coming along too," Reika said firmly.

"You can't," Linna looked up at Reika as she continued, "if we go there together we'll be confirming the evidence for whoever did this."

Reika met her eyes as she caressed her cheek, "I'm not ashamed of you, Linna. And you're worth more to me than the damn job anyway."

"I...," Linna smiled weakly, "I guess I can't talk you out of it?"

"No way in hell," Reika answered calmly.

Linna took a deep breath and nodded firmly. "Then we'll go together," she agreed, both women abandoming their planned lunch and heading off to change.

"Business wear?" Reika asked as she peered into her closet.

"Yes," Linna agreed as she got a black dress out along with matching leggings, "but formal. If we can knock their socks off it might give us a edge."

Reika smiled, "Good idea."

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

Assembly factory six was out on the edge of Genom's property, a unused building that was gradually falling into disrepair. But around the massive five story block there were fresh tracks of vehicles and a motorbike was parked nearby onr of the side doors. Parking nearby Reika and Linna stepped out onto the broken concrete, looking around warily.

"I don't...," Reika started.

"There's someone by the doorway," Linna whispered as they walked forward warily.

Priss Asagiri's cigarette glowed in the shadows as she stiffened, then blazed brightly as she charged forward. "You!" she growled angrilly, "I should have known it was you, Chang...!"

"Asagiri?" Reika blurted, "How did you...?"

"Stop," Linna yelped as she moved between the two women, grabbing Priss' hand as she threw a punch. Twisting her body she used a symple throw to send her flying, sending her crashing down with a thump.

"Oww," Priss winced as she forced herself up.

"No," Linna looked up at Reika, "There's no way she could have taken that photo. She doesn't have the money to hire a investigator and she was recording that weekend."

"What the hell?" Priss blinked.

Reika realized that Priss wasn't the author of their troubles, relaxing a bit reluctantly. "You got a phone call?" she addressed Priss, "So did we."

"You're being blackmailed too?" Priss said as she brushed herself off and muttered , "There is a god."

With a soft hiss the door opened, revealing a shadowed interrior. "06:00," LInna confirmed on her watch.

"Then let's see what this is about," Reika scowed as the three women headed inside.

To be continued....


	7. Meeting Two

Bubblegum Crisis Stage Three

Part Seven

The inside of assembly factory Six was dark as Priss Asagiri lead the way in, the brown haired woman looking around her warily. The jeans she wore gave her a good freedom of movement, the jacket providing some protection from injury as well.

"Are you two armed?" Priss murmured softly, feeling the comforting weight of the pistol she carried concealed at the small of her back.

"No," Reika Chang shook her head reluctantly, deciding not to mention the shock baton that she had concealed up her coat's sleeve. A surprise weapon was only useful if it stayed a surprise, after all.

Linna shrugged in reply as the darker brown haired woman mildly said, "Trust me, I really don't need to be armed."

Just then the dark interior of the factory lit up, blinding them for a moment. "Ah!" Priss yelped in pain and surprise, shielding her eyes from the bright light.

As the spots faded from their eyes the three young women looked around them in disbelief. The run down exterior of the factory now hid what looked like a state of the art command center, with a advanced looking computer rig, several parked vehicles to one side and what looked like two advanced combat suits resting against the far wall. The place nearly gleamed, it was so new, and the implied cost of all this was incredible.

"Welcome, Miss Asagiri, Miss Yamazxaki. I wasn't entirely expecting Miss Chang, but I think we can use you too," the voice drew their attention to another doorway on the far end of the building where two women were emerging.

"You!" Linna yelped, her face going pale as she recognized Sylia Stingray.

"Miss Stingray," Reika also looked like she had seen a ghost. In all the bad scenarios she had envisioned, nothing had equaled the idea that the president of the company knew about her and Linna's relationship. They were, to put it nicely, probably ruined....

"Stingray?" Priss echoed, blinking at her in surprise. She had only seen photos of the new boss but she easily recognized the woman once she was identified. Unlike the photos she didn't look sweetly bland, instead a dangerous intelligence sparkled in her eyes.

"I apologize for the methods I used to bring you here," Sylia said, "but I needed to contact you in a fashion that would keep our meeting covert."

"Besides, it was fun," the pink haired woman walking beside her said cheerfully.

Sylia made a face, "Hush, Nene."

"Yes, boss," Nene Romanova smiled back, the police hacker now dressed in slightly smudged coveralls in a soft brown.

"What the heck is going on?" Linna had to ask, summoning her courage and trying to put various disastrous scenarios out of her mind.

"I need your help," Sylia admitted. She looked over the three of them, "First, let me assure you I have no intention of blackmailing you. I only used those photos to bring you here."

Priss looked more than a bit annoyed, "And how do we know that?"

"Miss Asagiri," Sylia actually looked amused as she said, "if I wanted to destroy you utterly I could, photo or no photo."

"Oh," Priss blinked, acknowledging the point.

"Boss, that's not helping," Nene pointed out to her with a smile. "Carrot first, then stick."

"Nene," Sylia sighed.

"Shutting up," Nene laughed as she walked over and sat at the computer, bringing up the system as she began to type quickly.

Reika pushed her hair back, her expression intent as she studied Sylia. "Miss Stingray," she said respectfully, "I would appreciate a explanation."

Sylia actually looked rather amused by Reika's serious gaze, but she nodded slightly. "Ladies, I'd like to hire you for a matter of some urgency," she explained, "but separate from your existing employ with Genom."

"Okay...," Priss blinked.

"I'll explain once you've accepted," Sylia admitted. "If you are not interested, you are welcome to walk out that door with no adverse consequences. However, you also will not get the reward."

"Reward?" Linna raised eyebrow,

"I've done some research on each of you, even Ms. Chang. I think what I'll be offering you will more than compensate for your services," Sylia smiled mysteriously.

"Like?" Priss pushed.

Sylia looked at her thoughtfully a moment. "I'm aware of your situation with your recording contract. I'll either buy you out of it, or have it renegotiated more in your favor."

"Huh," Priss hesitated, debating just walking right out the door. But Stingray clearly had the power to give her what she wanted, and to be honest she was kind of intrigued by this cloak and dagger stuff. Whatever had caused Stingray to do this had to be interesting....

Reika and Linna exchanged a glance. Both were loyal to Genom, the company had treated them well. Plus there was... something about Sylia. She had a certain charisma about her, a passionate fire that blazed beneath that neatly cut suit.

"Stay?" Linna asked softly, reaching out to Reika's hand.

"Stay," Reika agreed as she took Linna's hand.

Priss made a face but nodded, "I'm in."

"Then please sign these," Sylia gestured towards the documents on the meeting table, "standard confidentiality contracts."

"You've got to be kidding...." Priss grumbled, making sure to read through before signing.

Both Reika and Linna signed too, then they sat around the table as Nene appeared with several ups of coffee. "I'd offer something better," Nene apologized with a half smile, "but someone hasn't installed a premium brewer yet."

"We're roughing it," Sylia said perfectly deadpan as she sat back in a leather padded seat, her fine no wrinkle suit spotless.

Linna snorted with amusement as Reika drank her coffee. "So why all this drama, Miss Stingray?" Reika asked.

"I think there is a conspiracy at work within Genom," Sylia said frankly as she sipped her own coffee, "one that has already attempted to target my life."

Linna's eyes widened a bit, "The boomer attack at your office?"

"Exactly," Sylia said as she explained the circumstances around that attack as well as what details they had found so far.

"We've had three attacks so far," Nene revealed, "all three associated with attempts either by myself or Sylia to access data relating to either Boomer failures, AD Police responses to Boomers or to cracking the sealed data block."

"Any idea what's in it?" Priss had to ask.

"If they knew that," Linna mused, "they wouldn't be trying to crack it."

"So what do you need me for?" Priss had to ask. "No way am I good with this computer crap."

"Body guard," Sylia said promptly. "I'm well aware of your... more interesting escapades, Miss Asagiri."

"Priss," she corrected as she smiled wryly. She had always known running with the gangs when she was younger was going to come back at her, but she hadn't expected it to be like this. "You got gear?" she asked. "I'm carrying, but my pea shooter ain't gonna do much against Boomers."

"We have some... things in mind," was all Sylia would say in reply.

To be continued....


	8. Bodyguards

Bubblegum Crisis Stage Three

Part Eight

Some days, Jeena Malso wanted to just stay in bed. Sitting at her desk in security she looked with frustration at several reports, including the file on the recent attack on her boss, Sylia Stingray. Irritably she dialed up the head of cybernetics, waiting for a response.

Dr. Yuri looked annoyed as he answered the communicator, his bald head gleaming. "Yes?" he asked her irritably.

"Have you preformed the autopsy I ordered on the boomer that attacked Ms. Stingray?" Jeena demanded of the resident cybernetic researcher.

"No need," Yuri shook his head as he told her, "the diagnostic interface confirmed it was a faulty processor core."

Jeena's face went oddly blank as she fought to keep her emotions under control. "You just did a computer diagnostic?" she asked carefully.

Yuri looked surprised at the question, "Of course. Our diagnostic systems are the best in the world, after all...."

'You idiot!' Jeena had to fight the urge to yell that aloud as she grit her teeth. "Doctor," she said flatly, "that faulty core caused a boomer to covertly make it's way to the President's office and attack her as well as two witnesses. That's a bit premeditated for a simple bug."

Yuri visibly paled as he realized exactly how irritated this woman was. "I didn't realize...," he said to her weakly.

'Not to mention someone jamming communications at the time of the attack, too,' Jeena added mentally. "Where is the boomer now?" she asked him, wondering if they could somehow salvage the situation, but knowing it was unlikely.

"Recycling," Yuri said reluctantly, "it was a automatic order from the central computer, came in to our office yesterday."

"Damn it!" Jeena blurted out, her cheeks flushed. By now the Boomer had been rendered down to it's component elements, all ready to be reprocessed at a manufacturing plant into the latest generation of boomer.

Very meekly Yuri offered, "I can send you the files of the computer scan if you want."

Jeena didn't quite see how that would help the case, but it was better than having nothing at all. "Do it," she nodded then added harshly, "and if I send you a boomer to be examined again, take it apart! No computer diagnostics."

"Understood, ma'am," Yuri nodded, gulping.

Jeena cut the connection, sitting back with a sigh. The ADP had taken over the investigation of the attack, as the primary boomer police force, but their investigation had been superficial at best. They seemed eager to accept the simple explaination of rogue boomer, not even taking into account the communications jamming that had happened.

"Ma'am," her attractive male boomer secretary interrupted her thoughts, "you need to file the security logs for last night...."

"Thank you, Alfred," Jeena sighed as she went back to the day's paperwork. Of course most of it was no longer paper based, all computer files and data moving....

About half an hour later the command security ear-piece that Jeena had to wear gave it's level one emergency chirp, notifying her about a possible security breech. "Report?" Jeena activated the security channel, noting it was coming from the front desk.

"Ms. Stingray has arrived," the officer on the desk arrived, "but... she's brought in armed, private security."

"WHAT!?" Jeena blurted, then got up out of her desk to see what the hell was going on.

Sulia Stingray was as striking as ever as the slim, black haired woman stood in the enterance way to the administrative zone of Genom's Tower, dressed in a stylish if comfortable business suit. Flanking her on each side were two other women, also dressed in business suits, their eyes hidden behind mirrored sunglasses, wearing high grade communications gear and from the fit of their suits carrying concealed weapons.

"Chief Malso," Sylia Stingray said flatly as the building security staff hovered nervously around, "I do not appreciate being delayed like this."

"Back to your posts," Jeena ordered her staff even as the taller woman met Sylia's eyes. "We don't allow private security that's separate from Genom's," she told her superior mildly.

"Then make a exception," Sylia said boldly as the two other women kept an eye on Jeena and their surroundings like good security should.

Jeena kept her voice reasonable even as her thoughts raced as she started, "This isn't necessary, Ms. Stingray...."

"Oh really?" Sylia raised a delicate eyebrow. "Maybe you didn't notice the murder attempt in this very Tower, the one your security forces failed to prevent? The same murder attempt that the ADP and your internal teams have done a very poor job investigating?"

Jeena flushed, as much from anger as embarassment. It was even worse knowing that Stingray was right, they had flubbed the investigation, possibly beyond repair...

"Security chief Malso," Sylia was a bit more gentle, but not by much, "I will be bringing my private security in with me. Either that or I will return home, make some calls and you will likely not be employed here tomorrow. It's your choice."

Jeena was tempted to bar them anyway, her anger burning in her gut. Only the knowledge that she was more angry that her own teams' failures had caused this situation held her back. "Of course, ma'am," she made herself answer evenly, "bring them in. Be aware we will be monitoring them for possible breeches in security."

"Of course," Sylia smiled as she and her two companions advanced through the lobby. One called for the elevator while the other woman watched the lobby, then the first woman checked out the elevator before letting Sylia board it.

'They act like pros, whoever they are.' Jeena thought grimly as they left. "Identifications?" she asked the guard on duty.

"Priss Asagiri and Leena Yamazaki," the boomer on duty said flatly, "both have been detached from their usual Genom contracts to work with her."

Tapping into her desk computer Jeena ordered it to produce a full download on them as she asked the boomer, "Are they licensed to carry small arms?"

"Licenses have been registered in both their names several days ago," the boomer reported after connecting to the police database.

'What are you up to, Stingray?' Jeena wondered as she walked to the elevator, her thoughts racing. She was about to climb in when a shrill alarm nearly blasted her ear drum.

"SHOTS FIRED!" the ear piece blared, "SHOTS FIRED! Security teams, mobilize on the executive level!"

Jeena jumped into the elevator, set it to the executive level them hit the safety override, rocketing up at two gravities. In moments the door pinged open and Jeena staggered out, shaking off the acceleration effects as she hurried down the hall towards Stingray's office.

Coming around a corner she saw a secretarial boomer on the ground, it's arms and legs sheered off by precision fire. One of her security boomers was recording the situation, while Sylia Stingray stood off to the side, both of her bodyguards with guns drawn and looking tense.

"What happened?" Jeena demanded.

"Another malfunction," the security boomer said placidly. "Secretarial type SC-23 charged Sylia Stingray and was disabled by her bodyguards. Their account has been confirmed via accessing their gun cameras."

"Malfunction?" Priss Assagiri noted, her brown hair falling around her face. "How's the old saying go?" she wondered, "Once is accident, twice is coincidence, three times is enemy action?"

Sylia smiled coldly as she wondered, "Does that mean I need to wait till attack number three to assume I'm a target?"

"I'm convinced already," Jeena admitted as she looked at the wreckage of the boomer. Looking up at Sylia she asked, "I'd like to delay calling in the ADP, start a internal investigation. May I?"

Sylia nodded as she told her, "Do it. But I want to see any results first."

"Understood," Jeena agreed as she called a crew to haul the still struggling boomer away.

To be continued....


	9. Bodyguards II

Bubblegum Crisis: Stage Three

Part Nine

Linna Yamazaki felt a odd thrill of satisfaction as the rogue boomer secretary was hauled away, waiting till her new pistol cooled down enough to safely put it in the holster under her arm. The brown haired woman looked good in the sleek, dark green business suit, sunglasses shading her eyes and a small communications rig mounted over her ear.

"I'll lead the way into the office," Priss Asagiri said as the darker haired woman lead the way down the hall. Like Linna she wore a fine suit, though hers was in dark blue. The office was clear of any obvious threats but both women swept the room like they had been trained to while Sylia looked on, faintly amused.

"I don't think I quite expected you two to be so gung ho about all this," Sylia noted mildly as she took a seat at her desk, calling up a keyboard and holographic view screen for the computer built into her desk.

"If you die, Reika's out of a job," Linna said in a half serious, half joking manner. Reviewing the data she had been stunned at the near misses that had already happened around Sylia, including at least one possible attack before she even returned to Tokyo.

Priss looked out the window warily, seemingly trying to guess how well a aerial attack might go. "Besides, you're paying me several times my usual daily wage," she offered as she touched her sunglasses, bringing up the magnification function.

"Trouble?" Sylia asked her curiously, feeling fairly certain that Priss would have shoved her onto the floor in a actual emergency.

Priss snickered softly as she said, "Nah, it's just apparent that someone in the next building over likes morning quickies."

"Peeping tom," Linna laughed.

Sylia made a mental note to get a download from Priss' sunglasses for possible blackmail purposes later, then went to work. "I'm opening a link to Nene's remote station," she said, "she's going to attempt a deep dive scan of Genom's mainframe."

Priss opened up her coat again to free the heavy grade rail-pistol that she now wore in a underarm holster as she said, "And someone took a shot at you every time you tried messing with the system, right? We'd better be prepared."

"It's why I wanted you here," Sylia agreed. She touched her ear-bud style communicator and murmured, "Nene?"

"I'm ready to go here," Nene answered on the group link they were all using. It was all tight band encrypted military tech, technically not on the market yet, and Nene dearly wanted to know how Sylia had gotten it.

"Opening connections," Sylia said as she set up the link between her computer and Nene's rebuilt personal computer.

"Connection made," Nene said briskly, the soft whisper sound of her finger's connection mono-filaments extending in the background. "Running system analysis now....."

"Why a system analysis?" Linna wondered, taking a look out the window too. She saw the traffic control drones hovering above the streets, the roads packed with the pollution-less hybrid cars that were required b y law nowadays.

"There's something strange going on in the Genom system," Sylia said as she monitored Nene's search, "and it's clearly connected to the boomer attacks. We have a download of the official system architecture, I want Nene to map the system and see if they match."

"And if they don't?" Priss wondered.

"Then we investigate where they don't match," Sylia shrugged.

The minutes dragged on as they all waited, watching the holographic display as Nene burrowed deeper and deeper into the computers at Genom. Nearly ten minutes later there was a soft buzz and Linna drew out one of the new secure phones Sylia had provided them all. "Reika?" she smiled as she saw her lover's face.

"I hate my new assistant," Reika sighed dramatically as she casually added, "she can't even get my appointments right."

Linna's eyes widened slightly as she schooled her expression, knowing that was a code phrase they devised for this operation that meant someone already knew about their hack. "Have you talked to anyone about it?" she asked.

"Just Mason, but he wasn't very helpful," Reika answered simply, then signed off.

Turning to Sylia Linna told her, "Mason already knows someone is in the system."

"Huh," Priss grunted thoughtfully, "either Mason is a better cyber-cop than he looks or he's in on whatever is going on."

"I'm tempted to assume he's in on it," Sylia admitted, "but that may be my own bias speaking." At the others' questioning looks she added, "Mason not only handles network security, he also does odd jobs for Quincy. Often semi-illegal odd jobs."

"Lovely," Linna blinked, mentally reassessing the seemingly studious older man she occasionally had to deal with.

"Tracking systems have engaged," Nene reported after another minute or so, "I've successfully diverted the first wave. Should I continue?"

"Have you got the system layout yet?" Sylia asked.

"Yes, ma'am," Nene agreed, "and it's not what's on file."

"Disengage," Sylia decided, "we have enough to start with."

"Done," Nene answered briskly. "Should I send the data right to you," she asked curiously, "or just to our hideaway?"

"The hideaway,' Sylia said, turning to see Priss staring out the window with a frown on her face. "Is something wrong?" she asked.

"Did Nene route her hack through a local building?" Priss asked, reaching up and using her sunglasses magnification function again.

"To avoid lag in the hack she used a empty warehouse nearby as a relay," Sylia relayed after checking with Nene.

"Because sometime in between her starting the hack and a few minutes ago," Priss mused, "the AD Police mobilized and it looks like they're tearing a warehouse out there apart. Does anyone wanna bet it's not Nene's?"

"Holy shit," Linna looked out too, seeing several AD Police cruisers, an armor unit and others outside of the now broken-into building.

"Relay the data feed," Sylia ordered and got a three dimensional composite view from both their glasses. She counted the officers and equipment, estimating how much time it took to deploy them and comparing it to their hack.

"The AD Police aren't inefficient," Priss admitted as she studied the crowd, the singer having had a few run ins with them and the usual police in the past, "but how did that many officers get deployed that fast?"

Sylia nodded, "If my estimate is correct, they had to be deployed almost as soon as we began hacking the system."

"They must have really wanted to catch us," Linna said, then looked at Sylia, "Do you mind if I check in with Reika?"

"Go on," Sylia nodded. As Linna called she sat back with a frown on her face, musing, 'I'm going to have to be even more careful, it seems. Someone has a secret here in Genom that they do not with to come out.'

As Priss listened to Reika and Linna talk she looked at Sylia and asked, "So far, whatever we're dealing with has hit you with standard Boomers. What happens when they go to the next level?"

"Preparations are being made in addition to the light armored suits I acquired," Sylia said simply, "I assure you of that. In fact, the first items should be arriving soon."

**0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0**

The afternoon sun shone down as Nene drove, the little redhead handling her car like a precision instrument as she went to the little postal outlet. Parking out front she walked inside and up to the desk as she smiled, "Package for Nancy Mukahari?"

Because of her interests in somewhat gray market computer gear Nene had established a series of drops where she could pick up products she ordered under certain aliases. The ADP might love her hacking skills, but they probably would not be forgiving if she was caught with illegal or at least restricted computer technology. When Sylia mentioned she needed some items shipped discretely, Nene had volunteered her services.

The crate at her mid-town drop was smaller than Nene expected, but she raised her eyebrow when she recognized the 'Warwear' symbol. A leading supplier of military gear they designed and built custom equipment for private security firms and even presidential security forces. They were the best, and difficult to hire due to long waiting lists.

"You need a hand, hon?" the postmistress asked, her ash blond hair falling down her back in shimmering waves as she watched Nene's shorts clad but wiggle. That and the skimpy T-shirt gave her quite the entertaining view, well worth having to call the lady for the oversized box.

The box wasn't heavy, just awkward as Nene eased it into the back of her little car. "I'm fine," she answered cheerfully. Leaving the woman her usual large tip for not asking inconvenient questions about identification etc Nene got into the car and drove off, soon arriving at the converted warehouse they called home.

Factory Six looked abandoned to the naked eye, but within was a state of the art command center, along with a computer rig that made even Nene jealous. They had two light armored suits racked up on one side of the building, along with two custom motorbikes and a armored car.

Hiding her car under a em-spectrum camouflage net Nene unloaded the box and carried it inside before giving into curiosity and unsealing it. Within were a pile of light body stockings, and Nene sighed in disappointment as she looked them over. Digging out the documentation she began to read, then looked at the clothes once more in surprise.

According to the paperwork, the body stockings were a new kind of advanced light armor. Light weight and flexible the silver-white cloth provided neck to toe protection against fire, knives and even many modern projectiles. Reading the fine print Nene noted that the manufacturers did not say that a rail-gun round wouldn't kill you, but the suit would stop it from penetrating.

Digging through the pile she found one in her size and carried it off to the bathroom, feeling naughty. She stripped off her shorts and shirt and started to pull the light garment on, only to realize her panty line was visible. Blushing Nene took off her panties then pulled the garment on, wiggling till it sat snug on her body.

Nene tried to get a good look at herself in the small, old bathroom mirrors, then gave up in disgust. Instead she went outside and activated the main monitor, making it project a real time image of herself in three dimensions.

'Not bad,' Nene admitted after a moment, looking herself over. Obviously whomever designed the suit was a pervert, the way it clung to every curve almost like it was painted on, but it was surprisingly comfortable too. She was admiring the fit of the material over her ass when a footstep jarred her back to reality.

"Nice," Linna looked like she was hiding a smile, her girlfriend Reika chuckling beside her.

"Looking good," Priss agreed, whistling.

"Eep!" Nene blushed furiously as she ran for the bathroom and her waiting clothes.

Sylia Stingray was surprised to feel herself blushing too as she watched her run and thought, 'That really is a very nice butt.'

"I figure that isn't just high tech lingerie?" Priss offered dryly once Nene was gone.

"That's actually not a bad idea," Sylia chuckled, "but they're actually armor cloth under-suits. You can wear them with anything and they'll stop most weapons."

To be continued....


	10. The Past: Priss Asagiri

Bubblegum Crisis Stage Three

Part Ten

Priss Asagiri's brown hair fell into her face as she adjusted the high tech shades, enjoying the built in functions. Microscopic mode, long distance magnification, even infrared were all available with a touch of the frames. They were a pretty cool toy, much like all the other stuff that Sylia Stingray liked to buy.

This was the third day she and Linna Yamazaki were on the job as Sylia's bodyguards, and it looked to be as exciting as the first two. On their first day escorting Sylia to work they had faced a attack by a secretarial type in the Genom tower itself, the next day they had nearly been run off the road by a boomer operated truck, so she expected things to be interesting today too.

Priss smiled as she started up the limo, hearing the electrical engine hum. "I really like this limo," she called back to Sylia, "custom built?"

:Yes," Sylia was wearing one of her usual off-gray suits, the skirt cut high on the leg, "I had a standard model armored and powered up the engine."

Beside her Linna was making sure her pistol was free to draw as she settled down, her more conservative forest green suit looking very stylish on her. "Are you a pro driver?" she wondered as they pulled out from the townhouse that Sylia owned outright.

"Skilled amateur," Priss admitted, guiding them into traffic, "I did a lot of driving when I was younger, some of it a bit... dubious."

"Courier work," Sylia noted.

Priss nearly jerked with surprise, but controlled her reaction. Obviously Sylia had done some digging on her team of operatives, and by the looks of it some deep digging. "How did you hear about that?" she asked, "I never figured the Tongs to spill."

"Money talks," Sylia looked amused, "and did you know Reika's family is connected? She even met you when you were younger."

Priss DID jerk in surprise at that. "Seriously?" she asked, keeping a eye on the road.

"Apparently you knew her sister Irene," Sylia noted with a wry smile.

"Oh shit," Priss breathed out, connecting the names and realizing exactly why Reika might be a bit annoyed with her....

**0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0**

At barely twenty Priss was young to be a courier, but she had two things going for her. One, she was hell on wheels on a motorbike or behind the wheel, and two she did not take shit from anybody. Case in point, this fight going on right now.

"Aw, fuck!" the teen gangster reeled backwards, a knee to the nose sending blood gushing down his face and onto his ragged shirt.

The boys moved to try to surround Priss, but she clutched the bag close to her side and bulled through. A shoulder to the chest sent one teen staggering backwards as she kicked another in the leg, sending him falling sideways. She sprinted by even as she dug into her procket, her expression grim.

"Damn it, give it up," a big, older gangster lunged for her.

Popping the mono-blade from her pocket Priss thumbed the release, slashing at the man as he tried to grab her. He reeled backward with a gurgling cry, blood splashing as Priss bolted by, getting out of the alley and back on the crowded streets of Hong Kong.

Seeing a delivery bike left unattended Priss hopped on, switching the engine on and taking off to the cough of a badly tuned engine. She relaxed a bit as she weaved through traffic but was still attentive, knowing she wasn't out of the woods yet. She made her way across town, ditching the bike and continuing on by foot, eventually reaching the building she wanted.

Kou was on guard tonight, the big Chinese glowering at everyone who passed by, his arms crossed and muscles rippling. He looked down at her disapprovingly as he asked, "Asagiri, what are you doing here?"

"Delivery," Priss said, "can you let Irene know I'm here?"

"Of course," Kuo nodded, waving one of the younger toughs guarding the building over and sending him inside with the message. His expression was difficult to read as he studied Priss, then he mused, "You're really not suited to this, Asagiri."

"I'm good at what I do," Priss shot back.

"There are other things you're better at," Kuo shot back. He smiled faintly, "I heard you sing when you went out with Miss Irene."

Priss waved that off, "Kid's stuff."

Kuo shook his head, "You could be good, Asagiri."

The runner returned with permission that Priss could enter, so she didn't reply as she headed inside. His words, however, lingered in her mind as she was lead through Hou Bang headquarters in the eastern side of the city. Young men and women worked in what almost looked like a typical office building, if you ignored the number of people with scars....

Irene was a fit and attractive older woman, her brown hair kept short and neat, along with the business suits she chose to wear. She and Priss had a 'thing' going on between them, or at least that was what Irene called it. Priss looked at it as 'Irene liked fucking on the desk' but she was a simpler person, more or less.

"Priss," Irene smiled warmly as she entered, her eyes twinkling with amusement. She swept Priss with her gaze and frowned slightly, "Did you have some trouble?"

"The Vision gang jumped me," Priss admitted as she took off the shoulder bag. With the ease of long practice she turned it inside out and popped open the hidden compartment, popping out the small squares of plastic and passing them over.

Irene frowned, "We were given assurances by young Miss Valante that there would be no problems with the shipment,."

"Then Lisa is talking out of her ass," Priss sighed, sitting down tiredly. It had been a long day, and she really needed a rest. "So what did I haul this time?" she asked curiously as Irene loaded the data drives into the computer

"Contraband vids from Japan," Irene noted calmly. A smile twitched on her lips, "Our lords and masters in China are getting stricter about what they'll let in."

."I still can't believe Hou Bang makes enough on it to justify smuggling in American and Japanese programs," Priss noted wryly.

"Contraband recordings are as hot as the resistence to playing them," Irene shrugged, "the harder the crackdown, the more we make."

"Dangerous, tho," Priss mused.

"True," Irene smirked, "but that's what makes it fun."

Priss stuck her hand out as Irene finished recording, "Can I get my pay, please? That bitch of a landlord is riding me again."

"You should more into one of the clan controlled buildings," Irene noted as she counted out the yen onto Priss hand.

"Yeah, well," Priss smiled slightly and shrugged as she said, "I wanna keep at least a little independence, you know?"

"I do," Irene nodded, though a flicker of pain showed in her eyes. She got up, long legs moving silkily as she smiled, "How tired are you, little Priss?"

Priss smiled back, "Not that tired."

Some hours later Priss slipped out of the office, leaving Irene asleep behind her desk. As fun as the sex was it left her feeling a little... soiled. She guessed it was how much Irene got off on her being younger that bothered her, or maybe the woman's domineering ways. She always had the feeling Irene wanted to control her, and was displeased she couldn't.

Straightening out her clothes Priss walked out of Hou Bang, silently resolving this was the last courier job. They were just getting too damn dangerous, and too many people seemed to by dying lately. She passed Kuo in the alley beside the headquarters, who took in her messy state and frowned disapprovingly.

"What?" Priss challenged.

Kuo looked away, somewhat uncomfortable. "I... do not think Irene treats you fairly, miss," he admitted. He was about to say more, when they both heard the first shouts of alarm. He and Priss pelted up the street only to freeze, eyes widening in alarm.

Cops. And not just the cops but military forces, pouring out of vehicles and moving to surround the building. "Oh, crap," Priss swore, realizing this was a full on raid. She had thought the family had paid off the local cops enough to turn a blind eye, but apparently not.

"Go," Kuo shoved her down the street, "get lost in the crowd, hurry."

"But...!" Priss yelped.

"You are just a runner, I doubt they have a warrant on you," Kuo ran back towards the buildings, "Go! I have to help Miss Irene."

Priss watched him go, shocked at the gruff man helping her, then turned to run. Hurrying away she saw a familiar face among the cops and cursed, knowing who has sold them out. Lisa Valente was standing by a police officer, smug smile on her face as they talked, even as the army began to break into the Hou Bang owned building.

'You and I aren't done, Valente, not by a long shot.' Priss vowed to herself silently before she disappeared into the night.

**0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0**

"Priss?" Linna looked at her in alarm, "You looked like you were a thousand miles away."

"More like a decade," Priss admitted, concentrating on the road. She looked in the rearview mirror at Sylia, "What sort of details did you hear?"

"You worked for certain interests in Hong Kong," Sylia answered calmly, "they were sold out and you escaped to Japan. As you were never charged in any of it, you didn't have a record going into working for Genom."

"I see," Priss admitted. She looked over at Linna and asked, "Uhm, is it going to be a problem with Reika?"

"I don't think so," Linna said, "she didn't go into much detail on why her sister is in prison, after all. And she said for me to tell you that how you handled Valente made up for it." She looked curious, "Who's Valente?"

Priss smiled grimly, "You don't want to know."

To be continued....


	11. Jeena Malso

Bubblegum Crisis: Stage Three

Part Eleven

Jeena Malso blinked as she looked at the head cyberneticist at Genom and asked, "What do you mean there was nothing wrong with the boomer?"

Dr. Yuri rubbed a hand across his bald head, "I didn't quite say that, ma;an. What I said was that there were no mechanical defects."

"Which means?" Jeena asked, the older woman narrowing her eyes.

"The secretarial boomer that attacked Ms. Stingray was not defective," Dr. Yuri chose his words with care, "it was simply obeying it's programming."

Jeena sat back in her chair, looking at the man standing in front of her desk. It had been a long day, and now as the evening sun hit her office she felt every hour dragging her down. "It was programmed to attempt to kill Stingray?" she clarified.

"I believe so," Dr. Yuri nodded, though he looked destinctly unhappy confirming that. "I still have no idea how it could happen," he added, shaking her his head.

Jeena tapped a finger on her desk in thought as she muttered, "I thought there were programs to prevent this sort of thing?"

Dr. Yuri nodded again, "Yes, they are programmed with a variation of Asimov's three laws."

"A robot cannot hurt a human being," Jeena tried to remember the rest.

"Cannot through inaction allow a human to come to harm," Dr. Yuri supplied, "and can preserve itself as long as it does not contradict the first two laws." He sighed as he admitted, "But those restrictions are merely programmed in, a sufficiently good programmer could delete them."

"Oh, that's comforting," Jeena muttered. She remembered something and noted, "Last time we had a boomer go rogue, the computer said it was a simple faulty processor core. What did the diagnostic say about this one?"

Dr. Yuri grimaced, "It also diagnosed the problem as a faulty core, even though my own examination showed nothing wrong."

Jeena made the obvious leap as she mused, "We can't trust the computers?"

"If these are part of a deliberate attack," Dr. Yuri sighed, "we're clearly dealing with a expert programmer. It's quite possible someone has compromised our systems."

"Lovely," Jeena sighed. She picked up the folder on her desk, "Make up hard copies of your reports, just in case. I'll pass this on to Miss Stingray."

"Yes, ma'am," Dr. Yuri nodded as he left her office, leaving her alone with her thoughts.

'Now what do I do?' Jeena wondered. Proper procedure said she should take this to her computer crime experts and fellow Genom staffers, but who to trust? If there was corruption in the computers, there was no way to know whom might be involved.

As she considered the situation, Sylia Stingray's actions were making more sense to Jeena too. The woman either knew or strongly suspected there was something rotten in Genom, and had taken steps to protect herself. Probably with good cause, considering the multiple attacks on her person.

Considering that made Jeena's course clear, so she picked up the file from her desk and left her office. Walking briskly she reached the elevator and went up to the upper floors, the executive level. Arriving there she quickly walked up the hall, reaching a certain door and knocking loudly.

The door slid aside and Priss Asagiri looked over her warily, the brown haired woman also taking in the hallway. "Clear," she called as she let Jeena in.

Leena Yamazaki stood off to the side, the black haired woman looking out the window warily. In the center of the room Sylia Stingray sat behind her desk, the young executive watching Jeena thoughtfully as she sipped a coffee.

Jeena walked across the thick carpet to the desk then put down the report with a soft thump. "I hate to say it but you were right," she conceded, "the boomer was programmed to attempt to kill you."

"I see," Sylia looked through the files as she mused, "I'm not really surprised."

"I am," Jeena made a face as she asked, "why is someone using boomers to try to kill you? What's the motive?"

"I don't know," Sylia said coolly.

'She's lying,' Jeena thought, even though the woman had a nearly perfect poker face. She resented that lie but she also had to concede Sylia had no reason to trust her yet. For all the young lady knew Jeena was allied with whoever was trying to kill her.

"Do you know, Ms Malso?" Sylia asked curiously.

"I can think of a few possibilities," Jeena admitted. "Someone wants power in Genom and sees you as a threat, they could be hiding criminal activities, or some combination of the two."

"All good theories," Sylia nodded. She made a face as she asked, "Can you investigate if it's someone in Genom? Descretely?"

"I will," Jeena nodded, "and if I find anything?"

"We bring in the police," Sylia said firmly, "I won't allow a cover up."

Jeena felt a flash of respect for Sylia, which she carefully hid. "I'll keep you updated regularly, just in case," she said as she strode out of the office, leaving the file behind. Already she was considering possible suspects and motives, sorted by skill with computers or ability to buy such skill...

Meanwhile back in the office Sylia was reviewing the file, feeling more than a bit impressed with her chief of security. "Not bad at all," she noted.

"Think she's honest?" Priss asked skeptically, having had more than one run in with dishonest security types over the years.

"It looks like it," Sylia admitted. "But if she's working for whoever is after me, they'd make her investigation look good."

"Don't get too paranoid, now," Linna cautioned mildly.

As Reika Chang entered from another room she noted mildly, "It's not paranoia if they really are out to get you."

"True," Linna smiled fondly at her lover.

"Geh!" Priss made a face while Sylia looked amused. "We getting out of here soon?" she asked their boss curiously. Until she started shadowing Sylia Priss had not realized the long hours she kept, working from early in the morning well into the evening hours.

Sylia put the files in her briefcase, locking it with a snap. "We'd best go," she agreed as she stood up, "I have a charity reception to go to tonight, and I need to get ready."

"We're going too," Reika noted. She gave Sylia a thoughtful look, "Are you why we recieved invitations to go together?"

"I am," Sylia admitted as they all walked out of the office together. "You can only be blackmailed if it's a secret."

"But company regulations...," Linna started.

"Are to protect employees from being abused by their superiors," Sylia said as they walked to the elevator, "do you think Reika's taking advantage of you?"

"Hell no," Linna admitted.

Priss opened the elevator and checked the interior for traps, just as she had been trained. "Everybody in," she said briskly. She looked at Linna and Reika, "Besides, if anyone brings it up just tell them you got special permission from Sylia."

"Screw the rules, I have money," Sylia quoted, grinning.

Reika snorted in amusement while Priss grinned. They went into the basement parkade as both Linna and Priss warily checked out the place for threats, then walked across to Sylia's armored car.

"Hold on a second," Linna paused to look under the car, then stiffened in surprise. "MOVE!" she yelled, shoving Reika back.

"Hit the deck!" Priss shoved herself and Sylia behind a car as there was a flash of light and thunder.

The bomb under the car blasted the vehicle straight up then it flopped over on it's side, the armor keeping the now burning car intact. Smoke billowed out as fire alarms wailed, then the sprinklers kicked in automatically.

"Well damn," Sylia managed to say after a moment, "I liked that car."

"SYLIA!" Nene's voice boomed over the concealed radios they all wore, "Are you all right?"

"I'm fine," Sylia reassured the hacker, even as she got herself up to her feet and brushed off her clothes casually. "Looks like our enemy is still gunning for me."

"You think?" Priss raised a eyebrow as all four of them were lightly misted on by the firefighting chemicals.

Within a few moments Jeena rushed in, obviously having picked up a alarm in her security office. Either that or she simply heard the blast! She looked about at the burned up wreckage and shook her head, "What a mess." Looking at Sylia she asked, "Car bomb?"

"Planted under the vehicle," Sylia said with remarkable calm, "Linna caught it."

"Well done," Jeena nodded to Linna respectfully. As fire fighting boomers emerged from their waiting rooms and descended on the smoking vehicle she said, "I'll order my staff to preform sweeps of the parking areas, though I can't say how helpful it'll be."

"Why not?" Linna asked.

"I can't watch over here all the time," Jeena explained, "and if it's a boomer doing it it'll be harder to catch it."

"Do your best," Sylia smiled as she took out her phone an d called a reliable limo company. "Would you care to ride with me?" she asked Linna, Reika and Priss.

"If you could drive us home I'd appreciate it," Reika admitted.

"I'll stick with you, in case they try something else tonight," Priss said firmly.

"Thank you," Sylia nodded as she took in their bedraggled forms with a sigh. 'This was a good suit, too,' she thought.

The limo picked them up a few minutes later, and they headed out into the city, stopping off at Reika and Linna's apartment then heading out to the building where Sylia's penthouse suite was. "Nice place," Priss noted, looking around thoughtfully.

"It's not bad," Sylia shrugged casually as she walked through the suite to er bedroom. "I chose it mostly for nearness to Genom and available escape routes."

'This woman is crazier than I am about Genom,' Priss found herself thinking.

To be continued...


	12. Quincy

Bubblegum Crisis: Stage Three

Part Twelve

Quincy R Rosencroitz studied the data logs, the old man's expression oddly neutral as he watched remote footage of the bomb going off. He had already called and berated Jeena Malso, demanding how the security breach could have been possible.

While 'only' the vice-president of Genom now that Sylia had taken up her job, Quincy still had tremendous power and influence, which he used now. The ADP was called, the Commissioner quickly agreeing that Genom's internal security could handle the attempted bombing. He then called up several editors at several major news outlets, burning up a few favors to make sure the attack wouldn't make the news, or if it did it would be buried in the back pages.

Finishing his work Quincy sat back with a sigh as he considered the situation. Despite what some might say, he had always been loyal to Genom and Mr. Stingray. They had built this company from a simple microchip manufacturer to one of the biggest multinationals, with fingers in nearly every pie. And there was no way in hell that Quincy would let anything ruin that.

"Computer, activate interface," Quincy ordered as he sat back in his chair, data connection cables sprouting to connect with sockets implanted in the back of his neck.

Instead of appearing in the office Quincy found himself in a virtual space, one he quickly recognized as a replica of the manufacturing site for modern Boomer secretaries. He watched a moment as the waldos and robots built the core of the Boomer, then it was shuffled away to get it's synthetic 'flesh' added to the robotic skeleton.

Growing impatient Quincy called, "Are you there?"

The shadowy figure materialized almost as soon as he called, the man's stance slightly apologetic as he said, "Sorry, I was monitoring the creation of a new batch of secretarial models when I lost track of time."

Quincy wasn't terribly comfortable knowing his ally could monitor that, as it implied he had even more access than Quincy thought. Shaking off his discomfort he asked, "Do you know who is behind the attacks on Sylia Stingray?"

"No," the shadowed figure answered, "but I have my suspicions it's someone high up in the company, with equally high level computer access."

"Mason," Quincy quickly decided, his expression bleak.

"He has the access," his adviser agreed, "and the programing skills. I don't know what his motive might be, however."

"We can discern that once we dig through his files," Quincy growled. He considered, "Is Reika Chang or Jeena Malso a possible suspect?"

"Malso lacks the skills required, as does Chang," the man answered calmly, "they could hire someone, of course, but it makes it even more likely they would be caught."

"Three people can keep a secret if two of them are dead," Quincy quoted grimly. He shook his head as he sighed, "Thank you for your help."

"You're welcome," the man smiled slightly as Quincy logged out.

Quincy disconnected, wincing at the wet noise of cables unplugging from modified flesh. He sat for a moment letting the headache fade even as he considered what he knew. Quincy didn't entirely trust his mysterious ally, despite what might be said, but he had to admit that the man made sense. Someone appeared to be reprogramming Boomers, and there was no way to do that without the proper passwords and authorizations.

'Mason and I are two of the few people with that kind of access,' Quincy mused, 'and I'm certainly not doing it!'

Sitting back in his chair Quincy massaged the back of his neck as he considered what to do. Turning over Mason to the police was impossible, of course. The only way to prove his crimes would be to allow the ADP unfettered access to their computer systems, and there was no telling what they might find snooping around. No, this would have to be handled discretely.

Quincy dialed the number, one he didn't commit to paper or any electronic files. "Yes?" Fargo answered calmly.

"It's Quincy," he answered flatly, "I need to see you."

"Got it," Fargo answered briskly, "the usual place?"

"Yes," Quincy nodded and gave a time.

**0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0**

Fargo did not think of himself as a mercenary, rather as a facilitator. A person would contact him with a job they needed doing, and he would put them in touch with people who could do the job. What happened next was none of his business, and in truth he didn't want to know.

So he listened without comment as he and Quincy stood in the old parking lot on the edge of town, taking in his requirements. The old man leaned on his car, wincing as his leg braces helped take the weight and coldly plotted the death of his subordinate.

"How covert does this need to be?" Fargo asked after a moment, carefully not mentioning the word 'murder' or any other similar terms.

"I would prefer that there be no implications of foul play," Quincy answered carefully.

"Understood, I'll get a team on it," Fargo answered briskly. They dickered over fees, then he asked calmly, "Time frame?"

"Within a week," Quincy said, "but please don't provide me with any further details."

A faint sneer crossed Fargo's lips, but he got his expression under control. "We'll get the job done," he said, leaving Quincy and walking back to his car.

Gibson, his diver, was sitting behind the wheel, the younger man tapping the wheel impatiently. Some years ago he and his wife were assaulted by bikers, injuring him and putting his wife in the hospital. Fargo had helped provide... closure for him, and in return he worked as a driver.

"So what's the job?" Gibson asked as Fargo climbed in, starting up the car while Fargo belted himself in.

"Quincy needs a problem fixed," Fargo said as he sat back, his expression thoughtful. "Head to the office, I need to do some planning."

"Got it," Gibson agreed as they took off.

The office was in a old building, the whole neighborhood run down and decrepit. Of course that also made property cheap to buy up, and at this point Fargo owned a good chunk of the block. He sent Gibson home and went inside, the suspiciously new door asking for his passcard. Swiping it he went down the dingy hallway to his office, a somewhat renovated room that still looked rather seedy.

"Welcome back, boss," Madigan nodded stiffly, the former corporate mover and shaker now working as his aide and secretary. Once upon a time Madigan had been a rising star, until a rival framed her for corporate espionage. Or at least she claimed she was framed. Anyway, Fargo helped extract her from a kill-squad, and after dealing with the squad's employer gave her a job.

"Madigan," Fargo nodded, "we've got a job involving a old friend of yours."

"Oh?" Madigan looked curious as Fargo hung up his battered trench coat on the coat rack and sat down at his desk.

"Mason at Genom," Fargo said, booting up the PC built into his desk.

"Really?" Madigan poured them both a coffee, despite how late in the evening it was. "Did the bastard finally get caught?" she asked, carrying a cup over and putting it on Fargo's desk.

"Quincy seems to think so," Fargo said, "he wants steps taken."

Madigan nodded, knowing that was code for 'killed.' Thoughtfully she asked, "He wants something clean?"

"Nothing that can splash back on Genom," Fargo agreed, sitting back and frowning as he considered the tactical situation.

Brian J Mason was protected by security Boomers, as were most officials at Genom. An assault on Genom Tower was out of the question, considering the layer security there, unless they got inside assistance there was no way to stage a operation there.

'And I don't think Quincy would be happy with me snuffing Mason in Quincy's back yard, so to speak,' Fargo mused.

Mason's home would be a similar hard target, Fargo knew. He would have Madigan do some research to be sure, but he strongly suspected that someone who did the kind of crap Mason did would have a home like a fortress. Which meant they would need to hit Mason on the road to or from work, or to lure him into a trap.

"Madigan," Fargo said thoughtfully, "dig up whatever you can on Mason's home, it's security and so on. I need the information tomorrow."

"I'll do what I can," Madigan cautioned, "but a day isn't enough time to do a in depth search."

"I know," Fargo nodded, "I'll be working on a plan b too."

"Do you want to scout him out a bit?" Madigan asked even as she quickly went to work on her own researches.

"Good idea," Fargo agreed, reaching for his phone, "I'll call in Sylvie and Anri."

**0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0**

It was nearly exactly a week later when Quincy read the short piece in the newspaper about Brian Mason's death at the hands of small time hoods, apparently in the middle of a drug deal. Evidence had been found in his home of a long time habit, but one he successfully hid from his coworkers. Police felt certain they'd catch the shooter shortly.

Quincy put the paper down, shaking his head ruefully. He had no idea that Fargo could do this, in fact he wasn't entirely certain Fargo had done it at all. The evidence in Mason's home was terribly convincing, and from his contacts in the police the crime scene was quite credible.

This, Quincy hoped, would put to a end the strange goings on at Genom, and allow them to move on in their projects. His only concern now was that Malso might continue to look into the situation, and he felt certain he could handle that.

Worse came to worse, Quincy could always call in Fargo again.

Shaking his head Quincy began to compose a notice to send out to Genom staff about what had happened to Mason. He wrote in a regretful tone about Mason's accomplishments and how much the man would be missed, carefully not mentioning how he died. He urged Genom's staff to carry on, to strive to better the memory of their former leader. It was a fairly rousing speech, and Quincy felt proud of his efforts.

Quincy knew he needed to find someone to promote to Mason's place, but that could wait for awhile. Besides, it wouldn't look good to fill his place too soon. No, it was better to publicly 'mourn' the dead man, and he could always use the extra time to find the best candidate.

With a weary sigh Quincy sent out the notice to all the staff of Genom, then closed down his terminal. He got up, groaning a bit at how still his old body was, then made himself walk over to the window. He looked out at the city, a city that Genom controlled in all but name, and thought about the sacrifices that had brought them this far.

Quincy closed his eyes as he remembered a younger, innocent Brian Mason and thought of everything they had done for this company He remembered loyalty and courage, along with a willingness to get his hands dirty, and Quincy sighed tiredly.

"I think I'm getting too old for this," Quincy finally sighed, packing up his desk and going home.

To be continued...

Notes: I wanted to use Fargo from original BGC, and I thought it might be interesting to expand on his role a bit. Instead of just being a informant he's a PI slash Operative who takes on any job for a price. I populated his staff with other minor BGC characters too, just for fun.

May revise this chapter later, we'll see.


	13. Priss Asagiri II

Bubblegum Crisis: Stage Three

Part Thirteen

"Holy shit," Priss Asagiri breathed out as the brown haired singer read about the death of Genom executive Brian Mason.

"You swore!" Sho pointed, laughing as the little boy sat with her at the kitchen table.

Priss laughed softly, "Yeah, you caught me." She reached into her pocket and handed him a coin, "Here's another for the swear jar."

"Right," Sho laughed, hurrying off to put the coin in the jar.

Aoi and Priss had set up the 'swear jar' to try to cut down on Priss' bad language, however so far it wasn't working too well. Priss could restrain herself, sometimes, but her natural tendency was to swear like a dock worker. Well, at least Sho was getting some extra allowance with the jar money...

Aoi smiled wryly as her son ran off, then looked across the table at Priss. "What happened?" she asked quietly.

"You know how I'm doing bodyguard work for Stingray," Priss said quietly, "well, one of the guys we think is targeting her got killed."

Aoi's eyes widened, "Is that good or bad?"

"I dunno," Priss admitted, "I think I'd better ask Sylia." They both dropped the subject when Sho returned, the group finishing breakfast then Priss taking the boy out to a nearby park to play.

A few hours later and Priss was on her way through town, riding her motorbike just below the speed limit. If it was later in the day or somewhere more remote she would have gunned the engine, but in traffic she wasn't willing to take that chance.

'I must be getting old,' Priss mused as she pulled up to the security gate at Genom.

"May I see your pass?" one gate guard asked, the boomer looking at her calmly. Just behind him the human guard had his hand on his stun gun, as per regulations.

Priss unzipped her riding gear, revealing a dip of cleavage that instantly drew the one guard's eyes. 'Men,' she thought, amused, as she drew out her ID card. "Priss Asagiri, contract employee," she said, letting the card be scanned.

"Identity confirmed," the boomer nodded, "also, Ms. Stingray left a request for you to report to her office."

"Like that's a surprise," Priss pocketed her card as the security gate lifted. "Have fun boys," she said as she revved the cycle up and took off.

The Genom tower loomed over the city like someone giving a giant finger to the world. Priss could admire that kind of arrogance, in a way, but she sure as hell didn't trust them. There was way too damn much power concentrated here, and no checks on that power she could see.

'Well, other than Sylia,' Priss admitted, parking her bike in the garage. Walking between the cars she stopped at Sylia's to check for any bombs, then headed for the elevator.

"Good morning, Ms Asagiri," the boomer running the elevator said politely.

"What did I tell you about greeting me?" Priss asked as she stood in the small booth, her riding leathers clinging to her body.

"You would beat me to death with a crowbar," the boomer noted as the elevator rose.

"Too bad I don't have time today," Priss growled as they reached the executive level and Priss got out.

"Have a nice day," the boomer called, making Priss growl.

Priss walked past various offices, seeing the secretarial boomers watching her pass like cybernetic guard dogs. Worse, each was a potential attacker, considering that several standard types of boomer had been hacked to attack Sylia.

'Wonder if we can get the floor cleared of boomers?' Priss wondered.

"Hey," Linna Yamazaki nodded as Priss opened the door to Sylia's office with her access card, the brown haired woman dressed in a sleek green suit.

"Hey," Priss nodded back then headed for where Sylia sat. "Boss," she said respectfully.

"Priss," Sylia flashed a slight smile, then sat back in her chair with a sigh. "You know about Mason?" she asked.

"Just a vague news report," Priss said as she warily looked out the window.

"Supposedly Mason was killed in a drug deal gone bad," Reika Chang said briskly, the woman getting herself and Linna a coffee from the maker in the room, "it seems he was hiding a growing drug habit from the company."

Priss raised a eyebrow, "Supposedly?"

Nene Romanova was leaning on one of the chairs, the younger woman drinking a can of soda. "I don't buy it," the slim blond said honestly, "it's too damn neat. He just happens to be in a drug deal gone bad, the crooks abandon drugs and money on his body, and the police find poorly hidden drug paraphernalia in his home?"

Reika nodded, "I dealt with Mason a few times in my job over in music management, he was too smart not to effectively hide his habit, assuming he had one."

"And he had the money to get what he needed directly, not dealing with street level dealers," Linna noted flatly, "the whole thing stinks."

"But is it any of our business?" Priss had to ask. Everyone looked at her and she shrugged, "From what little I know, he's a scum bag. Right?"

"Yes," Reika shrugged, even as Linna and Sylia looked mildly offended. "No offense Sylia, but the man was scum. If even half of what was hinted about him was true, he got what he deserved."

"But does that justify someone murdering him?" Sylia asked mildly.

"I'd rather see him busted for something he actually did," Nene noted. She frowned a bit, "Do you think he was knocked off to cover someone's tracks?"

"Think he was involved in targeting Sylia?" Linna asked, frowning slightly.

"They might have assumed we were on to him," Reika mused thoughtfully, "or... had some other reason to hit him."

"We'll have to look into him deeper," Sylia decided, "Nene?"

Nene hopped to her feet, the little cyberpunk looking eager to begin. "You want me to raid Mason's systems?" she asked.

"Home and office," Sylia confirmed, "but do so from a disposable, untraceable computer. We know he had formidable defenses in place."

"Will do," Nene nodded, "I'll get right to it."

"Mind if I go change?" Priss asked, gesturing to the riding leathers she was still in as Nene hurried from the room.

"Your suit's in the closet, along with the new armor undersuit," Sylia nodded.

"Do I have to wear it?" Priss complained mildly.

"Everyone else is," Linna shrugged.

Grumbling Priss went into the bathroom. Stripping out of her riding gear she revealed she wasn't wearing anything under it, and used a hand towel to wipe the sweat away. Once she was satisfied she was clean Priss pulled on the light white and blue body stocking, wincing a bit as the tight material passed over old scars. After that she casually pulled on the still blue suit, glad that Sylia had gotten them tailored rather than off the rack.

"There," she emerged, dressed but still wearing her biker boots as Priss continued, "happy?"

"You could use the right shoes," Sylia noted mildly, shaking her head. "Everyone, best behavior," she ordered, "the police are on their way up."

A few moments later and the door chimed open, a familiar looking police officer entering. Priss blinked, realizing she had seen him before, somewhere. 'McKenzie?' she thought, then decided that wasn't right.

"Ms Stingray?" the tall young man nodded, "I'm Leon McNichol, with Tokyo PD. I'm here to ask some questions about the Mason case."

"Of course, I'm always pleased to assist the police," Sylia said smoothly. "However, I must confess to not knowing Mr. Mason very long."

"You only took over the presidency of Genom a few weeks ago," Leon confirmed. He looked around at Linna, Reika and Priss as he added, "I'd prefer interviewing you in private, ma'am."

"I'm sorry to say I can't do that," Sylia said firmly, "my security staff must remain."

That made Leon raise his eyebrows, "You're in that much danger?"

"There's been several attacks on Ms. Stingray," Linna looked surprised as she asked, "you haven't heard about it?"

"Not a peep," Leon said flatly. "Is it being handled by the ADP for some reason?" he asked.

"My understanding is that it was a joint investigation," Sylia noted calmly.

"I assume with the murder of Mason I'd be informed of it," Leon frowned, his expression thoughtful. He visibly shook himself, "Ms. Stingray, did you see any indications that Mr. Mason might have a drug problem?"

"No, he seemed quite focused and efficient," Sylia said with a sigh.

"Did he appear to have financial problems?" Leon asked by rote.

"Not that I was aware of," Sylia answered dryly.

"And did Mr. Mason have enemies?" Leon concluded.

Sylia sighed at the stupidity of that question, "Of course he did, he was head of Genom's external security. Everyone who was cyberburned trying to break in, every punk with a issue, heck many corporate rivals probably all hated his guts."

"Any personal enemies?" Leon clarified, gritting his teeth.

"Again, not that I know of," Sylia fell back on the simplest answer.

As Priss watched the interview she tried to decide if Leon was a idiot or just stuck with a hard job. In all honesty she thought it was the later, and she didn't envy his job interviewing Genom staff. At least half the people here had grudges with Mason, not to mention people outside the company. If the police were seriously looking into this as a murder, they had their work cut out for them.

Leon sighed as he checked his notebook, then looked over at Reika. "Ms. Chang?" he asked. When she nodded he continued, "You're on my list too, can I interview you?"

"Go ahead," Reika agreed, "but I don't know what I can offer that will help."

To be continued...


	14. Event

Bubblegum Crisis: Stage Three

Part Fourteen

Poor Leon had to interview both Reika and Linna, and clearly didn't enjoy the experience. The police officer tried to get something useful from either woman, but the ladies dodged him easily and left him rather badly befuddled. He looked like he was gritting his teeth as he followed them and asked, "So in essence, none of you saw anything?"

Sylia's smile was nearly angelic as she said, "I'm sorry we can't be more help to you."

"Somehow, I doubt that," Leon noted dryly. The tall, muscular man nodded to Sylia, "I will investigate why it seems your case is not being investigated from the regular Tokyo PD end. Hopefully it will shed some light on the rest of this..."

"Hopefully," Sylia agreed as he left.

"Well, that's interesting," Reika noted as the attractive Asian woman continued, "whoever is targeting you has enough pull to influence the regular police."

"Or Leon's lying to you," Linna noted as they scanned the hall before letting Sylia leave the office. Both she and Reika looked good in the formal wear they donned for yet another charity event tonight. Her dress swished around her legs annoyingly, but Reika's tux made her look yummy.

"Let's not get too paranoid," Priss noted, her blue tuxedo clinging to her body, and clashing with her cycling boots.

"Indeed," Sylia agreed as they got into the elevator and headed downstairs.

Nene also looked good, though she was dressed in her ADP uniform. "You mind if I skip tonight's rubber chicken?" she asked.

"It's really very good food," Sylia noted with some amusement.

"Sorry," the smaller woman grinned as the redhead said, "but this is the kind of project I can really dig my teeth into."

"Be careful raiding Mason's systems," Priss cautioned, "considering how fast he reacted to our hitting Genom's computers, he's got to have scary home systems."

"I'll be careful mom," Nene teased as they reached the basement.

Priss rolled her eyes at that then she and Linna did a check of the two vehicles they planned to use tonight. "All right," she asked, "who rides with who?"

"Duh," Linna gave her a look, "me and Reika and you and Sylia."

"Pretty much what I figured," Priss conceded even as Nene checked over her little car and zoomed off. "Stay close, just in case," she suggested.

"We really should call you team mom," Sylia teased as she waved Priss to the driver's side of her modified sports car.

"Oh shuddup," Priss growled uncomfortably as she got in, adjusting the seat for her size then doing a fast scan with the on board electronics.

Sylia sat down, leaning back in her seat as she took a slim, visor like device out of her glove compartment. "Do you have the route to the charity dinner?" she asked as she put them on like some kind of designer shades.

"Got it," Priss nodded. As she watched her boss start doing something arcane with the high technology she asked, "Should I take the long way around?"

"Please," Sylia smiled as she went to work.

In addition to trying to ferret out what stank in Genom, Sylia was also trying to put in a reasonable effort in running the company. Which was harder than it looked, considering how many tentacles it had in multiple businesses. Just in the Genom tower itself was Boomers, Marketing, Music, a private police force, and a fully functioning hospital.

Outside the Tower, Genom owned or controlled even more companies and products. There was a car manufacturer who also produced the ADP's vehicles, a drug company that was developing Boomer based transplants, several military arms companies, a high end clothing company and many more. Honestly, there were several acquisitions she couldn't even guess why Genom had taken over. Like the sex shop chain!

'Though I suppose costuming sexaroids would make sense there,' Sylia conceded as she searched through virtual arrays of companies.

Sylia wasn't surprised to discover that Genom owned a controlling interest in a bank, too. With both national and international business they needed to transfer money around quickly, and owning a bank would also ensure loan rates were fair. And it provided leverage with other companies...

'Remind me to ask Nene to help me hack into the bank's records,' Sylia mused, 'it might tell us who in Genom has their claws into which other companies.' She could access the official files at her office, but that wouldn't tell her who was doing what under the table.

"Sylia," Priss called, jerking her from her thoughts, "we're here. I circled the block once to buy you some time..."

Sylia reached up and shut down the virtual view, removing the glasses with a wry smile on her face. "Sorry," she apologized, putting them back in their special sleeve. "Linna and Reika here yet?" she asked briskly.

"Waiting for us to pull in," Priss said as they pulled up to where cameras flashed as photographers caught the wealthy and famous going down the red carpet. "I park us, let Linna open the door and all three of us will surround you as you go in."

"Got it," Sylia agreed, once again mildly stunned at how professional the three women had become as bodyguards. 'And occasional urban warriors,' she added mentally.

Priss pulled up, Sylia smoothly getting out to stand beside Linna and Reika. Priss locked the car and engaged the auto-park, the car smoothly navigating it's way to the parkade nearby. Cameras flashed and people cried out Sylia's name, but she just smiled and nodded as they all headed into the building. Sylia herself wasn't famous, exactly, but she was the richest woman in Tokyo, which brought with it these social obligations.

"Do you ever really get used to this?" Linna asked softly as they warily watched for snipers and other threats.

"No, at least not in my experience," Sylia said as they finally reached the main building and headed inside.

This evening's charity dinner was being held at the Stingray Memorial Cultural Center, one sponsored by Genom. Sylia found the name oddly amusing, considering her father was tone deaf and had little interest in arts or culture. Privately, she suspected the donation that earned the name was just a tax writeoff.

Still, the theater slash concert hall was a beautiful building, with soaring ceilings and walls decorated with fine art. The main hall was packed with the famous and near-famous, as well as the wealthy patrons they were constantly trying to woo.

Sylia mingled with the others, though unlike many of the guests she had a obvious security detail. Several rich guests and some of the staff looked a bit put out by that, but considering the amount she donated she didn't care.

One of the directors of the Center angled to reach their group, the older man pausing to let Reika use a small hand scanner to check him out. "How troublesome," he sighed, his silvery hair slicked back from his face.

"It is, somewhat," Sylia said mildly. It took a moment to place him, then she smiled as she added, "Thank you for inviting me, Mr Yoshimizu."

"Please, call me Kiyo," he smiled. Kiyo looked about before quietly asking her, "Is all this security really necessary?"

Sylia was pleasantly surprised someone would have the guts to ask. "I'm sorry to say it is," she admitted, "there have been several attempts on my life."

Kiyo's eyes widened slightly, then he looked around him nervously. "Is it safe to be around you?" he asked quietly.

"Reasonably," Sylia shrugged, "so far the attempts have been away from social occassions. That doesn't mean my attacker won't try here, but it's unlikely."

"I see," Kiyo nodded slightly. Surprisingly he moved past her as he said, "I had best finish what I came here to do. Miss Asagiri?"

Priss jerked in surprise to see him talk to her, frowning at him thoughtfully. "Yeah?" she asked him flatly.

"Lisa Valente was my step-neice," he said grimly as he threw a sudden punch, slamming her in the cheek before she could respond.

"Oof!" Priss yelped as she staggered sideways, tasting blood from a cut in her mouth.

"Priss, do you...," Linna started, moving to grab him.

Priss waved her back, even as she made sure that Sylia was covered by Reika. "And did you know Valente well?" she asked.

"She was family," the old man said grimly, swinging at her again.

Priss avoided the punch this time, stepping close and punching him hard in the breadbasket, doubling him over. As he crumpled she stepped back as she said, "She was a criminal, a gangster and a drug runner." Over the sound of his moans she added, "And she murdered friends of mine. She got better than she deserved."

"Well, that was exciting," Reika noted dryly as staff rushed to get the old man away. There were a lot of hostile glances flying Priss' way, but she seemed to mostly ignore them.

"Oh my lord, how could you attack a old man like that!" one woman on the staff rushed up to ask, her eyes wide in alarm even as he was hauled away presumably for medical help.

She seemed stunned when Sylia strode up and got right in her face, her eyes flashing angrilly. "Director Yoshimizu attacked my bodyguard first," she said to her coldly, "she acted only in self defense." She looked up pointedly at the cameras that monitored the room, "As your own security should verify, Miss...?"

"Busujima," the black haired woman replied, frowning as she added, "Saeko." She touched a concealed earpiece as she asked, "Security, sector one. Can you tell me what just happened in the main ballroom?" She listened, her expression changing then looked at Sylia, "I'm SO sorry, Miss Stingray. This should never have happened."

Sylia was amused by the thoughts clearly racing through several nearby staffers, that she might yank her funding over this event. Not that she planned to, of course. "You should be apologizing to Priss," she noted, nodding towards Priss.

Saeko turned towards Priss, actually bowing slightly. "I am terribly sorry," she said simply, "I misunderstood the situation."

"It's fine," Priss said, her words a bit distorted by her swelling cheek. Quietly she added, "It was old family stuff, on his side anyway."

Taking in her injured bodyguard and deciding she'd had enough fun for tonight Sylia told Saeko, "I think we'll be going." Quietly she added, "Don't worry, I have no intention of cutting funds to the Center."

"Thank you," Saeko smiled faintly, "I'm sure several people wanted to ask, but were afraid of seeming tacky."

Sylia snorted with amusement, "Indeed."

Saeko looked faintly disappointed as she added, "I'm sorry you're leaving so soon. I had hoped to speak with you..."

"Maybe next time," Sylia offered briskly as the four women moved out.

Reika, Linna and Priss kept close to Sylia as they left the hall and signaled for the car. "I think you made a impression on the lady," Reika noted.

"You think?" Sylia asked as their car drove up on remote. They checked it over carefully then Priss and Sylia boarded. "Once you shadow us back to my apartment, you're done for the night," she told Linna and Reika.

"Thanks," Reika grinned, "I just wish we had a chance to eat."

"Pick up some dinner and put it on your expense account," Sylia said as they split up. Priss took the wheel, and Sylia sat back with a tired sigh.

"I'm not fired over all this?" Priss asked, keeping her eyes on the road.

Sylia shook her head, "You couldn't have expected this to happen." She smiled slightly, "Besides, this just makes hanging around with you more exciting."

"Gee, great," Priss snorted, then chuckled softly.

To be continued...

Note: Saeko Busujima is from Highschool of the Dead, however I'm just grabbing the name and look. Other than that she's a original character.


	15. Nene Investigates

Bubblegum Crisis: Stage Three

Part Fifteen

"I missed WHAT?" Nene yelped, the hacker lounging around the converted warehouse the group was using as a headquarters.

Sylia sounded amused over the video conference link they were communicating over, sitting in her uptown apartment. "Apparently a relative of a Chinese gang boss tried to avenge himself on Priss," she said, "it went as well as you'd expect."

"Priss slugged him?" Nene guessed.

"Got it in one," Sylia agreed. She tilted her head to the side, "What are you up to, by the way? My remote feed on the base computers is picking up heavy activity."

Nene wasn't surprised Sylia knew about the computer activity in the base, in fact she expected it. "I cracked the protective systems on Mason's home PC," she said, "though I had to use brute force and a lot of your computing power to get the passwords."

"He'd have a sophisticated system," Sylia said, nodding. Mason had been in charge of electronic security at Genom, as well as dirty work for Quincy. Any system he had would have to be top of the line, if only for his own safety.

"And he had a hell of a lot of extra data in a secure storage bank under his home," Nene said with a tired sigh. "I grabbed it all, but it's literally petabytes of data. I'm going to need time to sort it before we can get anything useful done."

"Would another pair of hands help?" Sylia offered willingly. Leaning forward a bit she added, "I could come down..."

"No, it's fine," Nene shook her head, even though in all honesty she would have liked to hang out with Sylia a bit more. The woman was surprisingly nice when she let down her guard a bit, but she only seemed to do it in their private base. "I'm mostly using the search programs to try to find anything relevant." she explained.

"Thanks," Sylia said. She hesitated a second before saying, "There's a computer expert at Genom that referred me to you, Lisa Valente."

"I know her," Nene agreed, "though not too well. She's a pretty good system administrator but not so much of a hacker. What about her?"

"You know that Chinese gang boss I mentioned? He claimed he was avenging his niece Lisa Valente," Sylia said dryly.

That piece of information made Nene blink in surprise. "That's a hell of a coincidence," she finally said, frowning thoughtfully. Two women could have the same name, it certainly wasn't impossible. But...

"And I don't like coincidences," Sylia said with a sigh. "Can you do a bit of digging into this Lisa's background a bit?"

"I'll do my best," Nene said, but she knew she sounded kind of dubious about it. She quickly added, "I can try to trace her background, but a good computer fraudster can be very hard to catch."

"I'm not expecting miracles," Sylia reassured her. "Even if you can confirm she is not the Lisa from Hong Kong, it would help."

"Fair enough," Nene nodded, her thoughts already moving to how she could do the searches into the two women's background. "Can I have root access to the Genom personel department? I'm gonna need to check for tampering," she asked.

Sylia pulled out a keyboard from nearby where she was lounging. She typed a few seconds then nodded, "I've sent the access key to your mailbox," she said. She gave Nene a stern look as she added wryly, "Don't do anything I'll regret later, please. If Priss' wages suddenly drop to zero I'll tell her who to blame."

Nene pouted, "Spoil sport."

Sylia snickered, then said, "Good hunting, Nene. I'm off to have a bath and get to bed."

"Good night," Nene nodded as they cut the connection.

First thing that Nene did was pull Lisa Valente's official personnel file and work record from Genom. She had joined Genom about five years back, and had risen through the ranks to her current position in system administration. Most of her supervisor's comments were pretty bland, the most often one being 'capable but unambitious.'

The background before she joined Genom was complete too, as far as Nene could tell. Lisa had worked for several smaller companies, also in data management, then applied for Genom. It was all neat and tidy, but... it seemed almost too neat.

Nene copied a list of the companies that Lisa had worked for and then sent it over to a search engine of her own devising that would look for commonalities and abnormalities. Within minutes it had searched the companies and produced a list of things they had in common. One item on the top of the list made her blink: all the companies were no longer in business.

"What the hell?" Nene muttered, confirming that fact. Yes, all the companies Lisa had been connected to were no longer in business. She ran through the list of contact numbers for references and quickly discovered none of them now worked either.

'How the hell did Genom miss this?' Nene wondered as she found online data that backed up Lisa's background, but no actual people that could confirm it. 'Then again, we do so much checking online, I guess it could be innocent,' she admitted.

Leaving the computers to search through the background of Lisa at Genom, Nene started to dig into the Hong Kong Lisa Valente. That was a harder task that Nene anticipated, for a number of reasons. Firstly as a criminal Lisa had done her damndest to stay off the official radar. Secondly, about ten years ago the China/Russia war broke out, and Hong Kong got hit in the mayhem. Lot of data lost because of a stray warhead, or supposedly stray. There were the rumors China was trying to cover up a weapons program...

Digging through off-shore data archives Nene found a birth certificate for Lisa Valente, specifying a date of birth and region. She followed school records up to her teen years in Hong Kong, then found arrest records for her time in the gangs.

"Busy little girl," Nene muttered at the string of convictions.

Starting in her teens Lisa ran with gangs in Hong Kong and gained control of the Vision group. She apparently murdered the previous leader, a pattern she followed since she got into the gangs. Vision was affiliated with Hou Bang, at least until the organization was taken down by the Chinese government. A police report revealed Lisa had squealed on Hou Bang, but she didn't get to enjoy taking down the powerful organization. She was attacked not long after and hospitalized with internal injuries, then the Chinese/Russian war hit.

Sadly, there was no death certificate, but that didn't mean much. Hong Kong Island had been flattened in the war, and a lot of records were lost. Digging through the files Nene found several photos, then compaired them to file photos of the Genom employee named Lisa.

"Huh," Nene grunted.

The two women looked... vaguely similar, but that was all. They had different hair color and different shaped eyes, and more importantly there were clear differences in facial bone structures. Short of very radical surgery she felt certain the modern Lisa was not the Hong Kong version. But her curiosity bug was bothering her, so she decided to keep digging.

**0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0**

The group met at the factory on the weekend, as they weren't gathering at Sylia's office in Genom's tower. Despite the group starting out as employees of Sylia's they were coming togetrher as a team. And friends, or at least Sylia hoped.

Sylia used her pass card to enter, smiling slightly at the security scans tracing her body with light. While not lethal the defences of the building were quite strong, hopefully able to hold off a full on assault. Not that Sylia expected it to come to that, but you never knew.

The lights came on automatically, and Sylia started in only to see a figure slumped over the main computer. She felt a flash of alarm at first, then realized that Nene had fallen asleep at the terminal. The pink haired girl's head was resting on her arm, and she was snoring cutely. The screen read gobbledygook from the girl randomly pressing on the keyboard, and a bit of drool was coming from the corner of her mouth.

"Nene," Sylia tried calling quietly, but the younger woman didn't respond. A impish look cross her face as she took a step back and yelled, "Nene, time for school!"

"I'm up!" Nene yelped, jerking back as she awoke. The sudden motion was too much for the business chair she was in and she slipped right out of it, falling to the floor. "Ack!" she yelped as she bounced off her butt.

Sylia couldn't help but laugh, and Nene looked at her indignantly. "I'm sorry," Sylia managed to get her chuckles under control, "but you wouldn't wake up and..."

"Mean, very mean," Nene complained as she got up, rubbing her butt as if it hurt. She was wearing short shorts and a t-shirt, both of which looked painted on.

Sylia gulped, clearing a sudden tightness in her throat. She had a few relationships in school, but it had been a long time... she shook herself, hoping her distraction hadn't been obvious. "Are you all right?" she asked.

"I suppose," Nene smiled slightly. She stretched tiredly, "My mouth feels like something died in it. I'd better get some coffee going."

"I'll do it," Sylia volunteered quickly. As she bustled over to the coffee maker she asked, "How did your investigation into Lisa Valente go?"

"Weird, actually," Nene admitted as she sat at the meeting table. She ran a hand through her hair, trying to get it under control, "Do you want the short or long version?"

"As long as you need," Sylia said mildly as she carried over two cups of instant coffee.

"Thank you," Nene sighed as she took the coffee, sweetening it to taste then taking a drink. "Oh god that's good," she sighed.

"Lisa Valente," Sylia prodded.

"Right," Nene rubbed her eyes, "okay, I can nearly confirm that the original Lisa Valente died in Hong Kong when the Russians invaded."

"Nearly?" Sylia asked, impressed.

Nene shrugged. "The attack on the island blew too much to hell," she confessed frankly, "but I've traced her to a hospital days before the attack hit. If she got out alive it'd be a miracle." She added, "For a while there I thought Priss offed her."

That made Sylia raise her eyebrows. "Priss isn't the type," she waved that off.

"Everyone is the type, if provoked enough," Nene said with the experience of a cop. She shook herself, "Okay, here's where it gets strange."

"I'm listening," Sylia took a drink of her coffee.

"The Lisa Valente who works at Genom appears to have bought the papers of the original Lisa from Hong Kong," Nene said bluntly. She took a deep breath, "This woman emigrated to Japan using the papers, then built a background here before being hired at Genom."

Sylia froze. "So... is she a agent for someone? Maybe tied into the attacks against me?" she asked flatly, putting the cup down.

"No, or at least I don't think so," Nene said, shaking her head. "It's kind of crazy, but when I looked at her picture I was sure she looked familiar."

"What do you mean?" Sylia asked.

Nene took a deep breath, "I think she's a Boomer."

To be continued...

Note: This is me, fixing a mistake. In one chapter I had a computer expert working for Genom named Lisa Valente. In another chapter I mistakenly used the name for a gangster. Oops. So how could there be TWO of them?


	16. Chapter 16

Bubblegum Crisis: Stage Three

Part Sixteen

"What the fuck?" Priss Asagiri blurted as they met in the converted warehouse later that day. Unlike in the office she wore baggy shorts and a t-shirt, looking somewhat relaxed on a day off from their body guarding duties.

"Don't swear," Reika Chang chided gently.

"Sorry," Priss said quickly. She looked at Nene, "You're serious? A Boomer bought Lisa Valente's identity?"

"It appears so," Nene Romanova said calmly, "she bought the papers to get into Japan not long after the Russian/Chinese war. Since Hong Kong got slagged in the war, there was no one to say the name wasn't hers."

"Think she's involved in the attacks on Sylia?" Linna Yamazaki asked. She was dressed in a business suit, having been shadowing Sylia today on her errands.

"I don't think so, actually," Sylia admitted, looking as sleek as usual in her off-white business wear. She leaned forward, "Think about it. If she was involved with whomever is attacking me, she would have had the access to build a identity from scratch. Why buy a dead woman's papers and go to all the trouble she did?"

"True enough," Reika said calmly. "I can't say I'm comfortable knowing a liar of that calibre is in out midst, though."

"Keep digging, if covertly," Sylia ordered both Nene and Reika, "we need to be sure what she's doing in Genom is legal. An if not, we need to take steps."

"I'll give Nene access through my system," Reika noted, "it should help her do the searching into Lisa's identity and activity in Genom."

Nene looked thoughtful then nodded, "Should work."

"Any updates on what happened to that snake, Mason?" Linna asked curiously.

"Police are still convinced it's a drug killing," Sylia sat back with a sigh. She rubbed between her eyes gently, "I have... put some pressure on certain officers in the Tokyo Police to investigate."

Put some pressure, Priss decided, probably meant bribes. Or blackmail?

"After a more complete investigation they agree the killing stinks," Sylia admitted. "However they are being told by their superiors to drop it."

"Who would be powerful enough to do that?" Linna wondered, "The Mayor? Someone in Genom? Or...?"

"Could even be someone in the Japanese government," Reika noted thoughtfully. "They rely on funding from Genom, anything that might be endangering that would have to be stopped."

"You're as cynical as I am," Priss noted admiringly.

Everyone ignored that as Sylia continued, "I think we can be certain that this is related to my case."

"Can we really?" Nene asked. Meeting the others eyes she said, "Yes, it was murder. Yes, it was not a drug deal, that's a smoke screen. But Mason was DEEPLY involved in black ops for Genom, any of which could have bounced back at him."

Sylia looked at Nene in concern, hearing the deep loathing in her voice. "What did you find, digging through his files?" she had to ask.

Nene gave her boss a weak smile. "What haven't I found?" she asked wryly. "Just digging through the files I've decoded I've found murder for hire, blackmail, fraud... he was involved in so much dirty deeds I'm surprised someone didn't whack him sooner."

Sylia reached over and patted Nene's hand, her touch lingering a moment.

Priss waited a moment for them to finish, then continued, "So, you think he got killed for something unrelated?"

"I wouldn't go that far," Nene conceded. "But until I go through his files, I can't be sure something he was up to didn't come back to haunt him." She shrugged, "And so far, I've found nothing indicating he plotted against Sylia."

"I guess that makes sense," Priss conceded as Sylia subtly let go of Nene's hand and tried to look business-like. It was cute, in a odd sort of way. She looked at their boss, "Anything new we gotta cover? I promised to take some friends of mine out later."

Sylia tried to give Priss a disapproving look, but it didn't have much heat behind it. "Not from me," she admitted, "Linna? Reika? Nene?"

"We're covered, I think," Reika said after exchanging a glance with Linna, "there's contracts to review in the music division, but that's my area."

"If my assignments are cutting into your work...," Sylia started.

Reika smiled as she quickly said, "I'll let you know if I can't handle it."

"Fair enough," Sylia conceded. She looked at Nene, "Any other updates?"

"Not really," Nene shrugged, "at this point I'm still sifting data. As soon as I get something, I'll let you know."

"All right everyone," Sylia nodded, "dismissed."

**0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0**

Leon McNichol, Tokyo PD, really hadn't expected to be put in this kind of situation. There were several figures with guns surrounding him, he was alone, and the chances of backup were slim to none. Clearly, looking into this alone had been kind of dumb.

He had been assigned to assist in the Brian Mason investigation, but as a junior officer all he was supposed to do was interviews and data entry. He had reviewed Mason's file, finding it damn slim for such a famous public figure, then went to Genom to interview his co-workers. At the same time his seniors in the force were chasing the drug angle, one that was much more likely to lead to results.

The problem was, when you investigating things, you could find stuff you didn't expect. Interviewing people at Genom he learned about Mason... and a series of attempts on Sylia Stingray's life. Attempts, as far as he knew, which had not been reported to the Tokyo PD.

It was something out of bad science fiction. MULTIPLE android assaults on Sylia, hacking attacks on Genom itself and bombing attempts. If he had seen it in a ction film Leon wouldn't have believed it. And worse, due to wrinkles in the law Genom's own internal police, the ADP, could carry out the entire investigation. Which struck Leon as a horrible idea.

Not that Leon had anything against Jeena Malso, the head of ADP. She was a former high ranking cop who hit the glass ceiling, he had heard. Getting tired of banging her head against walls she quit the regular cops and took a position with the ADP. She quickly rose through the ranks, and now rand the internal police force of Genom.

Sadly, most of the rest of the ADP were glorified security guards or washouts from the regular police. Yes, Jeena did her damn best to keep everyone in line and functioning like real cops, but there was only so much one person could do. These people were, at least in Leon's opinion, in no way capable of investigating a attempted murder.

And worse, Leon had no juristiction there either. All he could do was look into the Mason case, which his superiors thought was just a drug deal gone bad. But Leon reasoned that Mason's death and the attack on Stingray might just be connected, and if he investigated one he might find some answers to the other.

Which is how he found himself in an alley, with a group of gangbangers trying to kill him. "Folks, you really don't want to do this," Leon said calmly, keeping his open hands away from his body.

The Revengers were a tough gang, one that ran over on Tokyo's docks. They were also the guys to talk about in the city's drug trade, which was why he was there. The men circled him warily, even as their leader looked at him with annoyance. "What the hell, man?" the older gentleman noted, his short brown hair streaked with silver, "We paid you bastards this month."

Leon made a mental note that someone on the Tokyo PD was on the take. "I'm not here to shake you down," Leon said calmly, "I just want to ask a few questions."

"Can I kill him?" the redheaded woman asked.

"No, Eve," the old man said thoughtfully. He looked at the other gangsters, "Scatter. Eve can take care of me and we'll handle this."

Several guys protested that, but shut up once Eve glared at them and ordered, "Go." They slipped away into the shadows, leaving the three standing alone. "We're clear," she told them after a few moments of listening.

"You IDIOT," the older man suddenly slammed Leon against the wall, rattling his bones. "What the hell were you THINKING?"

"Hey, Buzz," Leon smiled weakly, "it's been awhile."

Basil 'Buzz' Nikvest was a cop, one that worked undercover in the city's gangs. He was a older man, a cop who learned survival on the street and was as touch as nails. If you looked up 'hard boiled cop' in the dictionary, you'd see a picture of his old face, before plastic surgery.

"I repeat," Buzz scowled at him, "what the hell are you thinking? You could have been killed!"

Not to mention blowing his cover," Eve noted calmly.

"That too," Buzz sighed. He looked at Leon, "Well?"

"I need information," Leon admitted, "and you might be the only guy I can get it from." He tossed a wary look at Eve, not quite sure what to make of her.

Eve quickly realized his discomfort as she answered, "I am a police model Boomer assistant, assigned to Buzz for this case." She paused, "You could consider myself his bodyguard."

"More like a nursemaid," Buzz muttered. "Well, get on with it," he asked Leon.

Leon puffed out a breath, more than a bit disturbed that Buzz had this boomer as his only backup. Still... "The Revengers, do you still have a lock on drug traffic in the city?" he asked.

"I wouldn't say a absolute lock," Buzz said cautiously, "but we're the biggest player." Something flickered in his eyes, pride at his success mixed with disgust at what he was doing. He was becoming the most powerful drug dealer in Tokyo, all in hopes of crippling the networks in an out of the city.

"Good, you know about Brian Mason's death?" Leon asked.

"About time someone came to see me about that," Buzz snorted.

Leon looked at him in surprise. "The lead detectives didn't contact you? Not even through the safe drop system?" he asked.

"Not a peep," Buzz answered, "in fact I was expecting to hear from someone, eventually." He frowned, "What's up?"

"Looks like my superiors have decided not to look to hard," Leon muttered. He looked at Buzz and Eve and said, "Mason was found with drugs, and gear was found at his home. Was he a user?"

"If so, it wasn't from anyone connected to me," Buzz said, blowing a massive hole in the theory Mason died in a drug deal gone bad. "And there is no way a major player like him would be buying and I would not know."

"Crap," Leon breathed out, knowing things had just gotten much more complicated.

"Indeed," Eve agreed.

To be continued...

Notes: Buzz and Eve are characters from Parasite Dolls, the BGC 2040 related anime spinoff. I mostly just used the characters names, rather than getting the details right...


	17. Chapter 17

Bubblegum Crisis: Stage Three

Part Seventeen

Reika Chang sighed in contentment as she awoke, snug in her bedroom. The sun was shining, and she could feel the comforting weight of her lover in the bed beside her. Linna Yamazaki looked sweetly content as she snored softly, her head resting on Reika's chest.

With reluctance Reika slipped out from under Linna, easing out of bed. With that she hurried to the bathroom then washed up. Checking the time she headed into the kitchen and started up some coffee, knowing they both would need it.

As the coffee perked the scent of brewing coffee filled the suite, and a few moments later Linna tiredly shuffled out her hair standing up cutely. "Good morning sleepyhead," Reika teased.

"Coffee, please," Linna sighed. "I let you keep me up too late last night, love."

Reika smirked, "You weren't objecting at the time. In fact, I think you suggested a few things..."

Linna stuck out her tongue as she poured some coffee. "You let me sleep in, I see," she changed the subject, "thank goodness for weekends."

"Damn right," Reika agreed. Thoughtfully she added, "We should check in with Sylia, but other than that we've got the day free."

"You're getting to like Sylia, aren't you?" Linna mused. "I wouldn't have expected that, since she nearly blackmailed us into joining her."

"Now that we know her, do you think she would have actually gone through with it?" Reika asked curiously.

Linna looked thoughtful then admitted, "No, I don't think so."

Reika took a drink of her own coffee, hiding a smile. Actually, she suspected that Sylia would have gone through with her threats. They and Priss had been caught with their pants down, so to speak, and if they refused to play ball she could easily see Sylia doing what she had to. But Reika was a business-woman, and she could appreciate a degree of ruthlessness. Still, she wouldn't tell Linna that. She cherished her lover's occasional innocent moments.

"Did you want to go out for dinner, maybe?" Reika suggested thoughtfully.

Linna put her coffee cup down and moved to stand very close to Reika. "I don't know," she purred, "I was thinking we could... stay in, tonight?"

Reika smiled back warmly, "We'll get it delivered..."

**0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0**

Quincy R Rosencroitz, vice-president of Genom, felt surprisingly powerless considering his lofty title. Only a few weeks ago he had effectively run the company, as well as manipulated politics and economies to his liking. But with the arrival of Sylia Stingray, everything changed.

Quincy had expected Sylia to take some time settling in. Genom was a multinational company with branches across the world, and interests in multiple companies. Just keeping track of it all was a monumental task, so trying to get a grip on it... it should have taken weeks. Instead within a matter of days Sylia started issuing perceptive guidelines on international business and starting to guide the company. It would make Quincy proud, if it wasn't so aggravating for his own plans.

For many years Quincy considered himself loyal to Katsuhito Stingray, and had pursued the businessman and scientist's goals of increased integration of Boomers into every walk of life. Due to his efforts Boomers were in every company, every city, and very nearly in every home. Boomers were becoming part of the everyday fabric of peoples lives.

YES, he had done some dishonourable and even illegal things. To make a cake you had to break a few eggs. But Quincy had expected to have weeks to cover his tracks, then hand over the reins of the company to Sylia. He had already been wrapping up operations in several countries, and had cancelled several schemes in Tokyo itself.

His earlier schedule was now completely invalid. Instead Quincy now needed to simply shut down any of his plans that could come to Sylia's attention, using any means available. He removed any legal connections, first, then... removed anything in the grey areas. It took calls and messages to disagreeable people, but it appeared that he was clean.

Now, the problem Quincy had was covering his tracks within the company itself. He had executive access and computer support, along with his mysterious ally within the computer systems, but it was still going to be a long task to remove the traces of his less ethical activities.

With a certain degree of reluctance Quincy connected to the computer systems in Genom, and found himself in virtual reality. This time he was in a replica of the penthouse suite, the one that had once belonged to Katsuhito himself, and a office Sylia had not chosen to take.

"Why bring us here?" Quincy asked crossly, looking over at the painting of Katsuhito's wife, looking calm and elegant as she usual had been.

"It's a good a place as any," the shadowy figure shrugged casually. Calmly he asked, "You wished to see me?"

"Yes," Quincy agreed, "I finished the tasks left to me by Katsuhito, but his daughter would not approve of the things we've done."

The other man (?) nodded as he said, "Would you like me to eliminate her?"

"NO," Quincy yelped. He calmed himself as he added, "Katsuhito would never forgive me," he added with a sigh.

"He's been gone a long time," the other figure noted, then continued, "Then what would you have me do?"

"There is a lot of evidence of our activities in the system," Quincy said stiffly, "I need them removed, in a unrecoverable way."

The other figure seemed to consider it. "It can be done," he conceded, "but I will need to bring the system down to do it. That will draw attention."

Quincy frowned, then paused as a idea occurred to him. "Not if we handle it right," he mused with a smile.

**0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0**

Fargo was waiting at the usual spot, the brown haired man wrapped in a old coat and puffing a cigarette. Disgusting habit, and he made a mental note that he needed to get his lungs flushed out again. You couldn't be too careful. Finally the car arrived, and his former employee emerged.

Saeko Busujima was as good looking as ever, and Fargo suspected she was just as lethal. The elegant business woman had once worked for him as a 'specialist,' in this case a specialist in violence. She had beaten people nearly to death, for money. Yet she was also incredibly disciplined, having set out to earn a certain amount of money, then quitting when she was done.

'Did she really just... shut off that side of hers?' Fargo wondered as she walked up to him, dressed in a stylish suit and looking perfectly neat.

"Fargo," Saeko nodded, "it's been awhile."

"That it has," he conceded willingly, then Fargo added, "and you're looking good, as usual."

"Thank you," Saeko said. She took out a folder from underneath her overcoat and passed it over, "I need you to investigate someone for me."

Fargo took the folder, flipping it open to see what looked like a still image from security cameras. She had brown hair, was wearing a tux and apparently punching out a older man. "She seems spunky," Fargo noted mildly.

Saeko snorted with amusement. "This is Priss Asagiri," she said, "she was involved in a incident at my workplace. I want you to investigate her background, especially her time running with the Hong Kong Triads."

"Hong Kong is still radioactive, so that'll be tricky," Fargo noted mildly even as he wondered how this woman got from Hong Kong to here. Must be quite a story.

Saeko gave him a withering look over his attempted humour as she said, "You're resourceful, I'm sure you'll manage."

Fargo nodded slightly, knowing he could get his computer experts to work on it. "Why do you want the information, may I ask?" he wondered as he put the files away.

"It involves said incident, I wish to confirm all those involved were telling the truth," Saeko shrugged, "and if so, I will likely fire my coworker and apologize again to Asagiri."

"And if it was a lie?" Fargo had to ask.

"I will beat whichever one was lying to me senseless," Saeko said calmly.

Somehow Fargo knew she would say that. "I'll try to get back to you in a few days," he promised. "Is there anything else I should know before I start?" he asked.

"She's working as a bodyguard for Sylia Stingray," Saeko noted calmly, "discretion would definitely be wise."

"Got that right," Fargo agreed, well aware of how powerful Genom and it's current princess were. Hell, he had personal experience with that power.

DAMN was it strange seeing Saeko the businesswoman, considering how she started out, Fargo mused later that night in his office. When he had hired her she was just a girl gangster, though one with more style and brains than most. But she scrimped and saved her pay, invested, and eventually started her own consulting business.

Madigan tapped on his door, the attractive older woman looking in curiously. "You called, boss?" she asked politely.

"I need a background check, but it's going to be tricky," Fargo admitted as he stretched out tiredly behind his desk.

"Tricky?" Madigan asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Genom's involved," Fargo said with a shrug, "that makes it automatically tricky." He passed the file over, "This is Priss Asagiri. I need a background check, up until she arrived in Japan."

"Without tripping any Genom flags," Madigan noted as she looked through the file. "Where did she come from?" she asked thoughtfully.

"Hong Kong, supposedly," Fargo said.

Madigan snorted with amusement. "You DO know that Hong Kong is now the fave 'place of birth' for fake IDs, right? Because their records are all radioactive ash," she noted.

"Some legit data got backed up in China and Japan," Fargo said patiently, "just do some digging, all right? I'm not expecting the impossible."

"Will do, boss," Madigan conceded as she left with the papers.

Fargo sighed as he sat back. It probably was a wild goose chase, but... he didn't like the hints of things going on in Genom. Quincy hiring them, the new boss and now this. He wasn't sure if it was connected or not, but it seemed strange.

A news flash caught his attention, and Fargo brought up the link. "Fire and Explosion at Genom," the report said, then continued on...

'Strange days,' Fargo thought, tiredly.

To be continued...


End file.
